Masona

ON ST. MASONA, BISHOP OF MÉRIDA IN SPAIN, AND ON SS. PAUL AND FIDELIS HIS PREDECESSORS AND INNOCENT AND RENOVATUS HIS SUCCESSORS,

ABOUT THE YEAR 605.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Mausona, bishop of Mérida in Spain. (S.)

BY C. D. S.

§ I. On the veneration of Sts. Masona, Paul, etc., and on the editions of the anonymous booklet on their lives.

For a long time, I confess, and much did I hesitate whether at this place the Acts of St. Masona (elsewhere Mausona, St. Masona, praised in no old martyrology, etc.) Compare below Annotation a to chapter IX. should be handed down, or his name relegated among the omitted saints. For neither in the Roman Martyrology nor in any of the old martyrologies does any mention of him occur, nor does that notorious seller of apocrypha Juan Tamayo de Salazar bring forward in the Spanish Martyrology any other reason why he praises him on this day than that Masona is read to have died on the day of the Kalends of November in the Chronicle of Marcus Maximus, a spurious work, that is, of no authority among the learned. There is added that, when we diligently inquired about the veneration of St. Masona of learned men whom we have as friends in Spain, and through them even very respectable priests of Mérida, well acquainted with their traditions, were questioned on this matter, from their answers we were made wholly certain that not only in our days is Masona honored with no ecclesiastical veneration, but that no trace or memory of such veneration exists.

[2] [yet soon after his death, with his two predecessors and successors, celebrated by popular devotion,] Nevertheless, from the contemporary Acts, which we shall publish below, it is quite manifest that shortly after the death of St. Masona his veneration was celebrated at Mérida. These Acts are read in the book soon to be cited On the Lives of the Holy Fathers of Mérida; where, after narrating the history of the bishops of Mérida who succeeded one another in order in this see in the sixth and early seventh century, among whom the third is Masona, the writer concludes his narrative in these words: The bodies of these aforesaid saints rest, honorably entombed, in one and the same little cell not far from the altar of the most holy virgin Eulalia. At whose venerable tombs Christ daily confers such grace of copious loving-kindness that with whatever sickness anyone has been shaken, with whatever languor he has been afflicted, as soon as he has entreated the divine majesty there with his whole heart, feeling all diseases shaken off from him and all stains divinely driven out, he comes sound and cheerful, by God's grace, to the health he desired On the Lives of the Fathers of Mérida, no. 51.. Here you have a concourse of people to the tomb and a fame of miracles, each of which seems to be a strong indication of ecclesiastical veneration, where ancient times are concerned.

[3] was once venerated together with St. Damasus Since therefore according to the tradition of our forebears those saints are not to be omitted in our Acts who in antiquity enjoyed public veneration in some church, even if that veneration has not persisted until our days, the reason now appears why neither St. Masona and his two predecessors, nor likewise his two successors, are omitted by us. For the rest, the same could easily happen to these saints as to certain others who flourished in Spain in the first centuries of the Middle Ages, namely that their veneration, the Visigothic rule having been overthrown in that region by the Moors, was so blotted out that it wholly fell away from

the memory of men. Of this kind can be cited the holy men of Córdoba Alvarus and Sperandeus, whose names are now established to have once been inserted in the ecclesiastical calendar, the former on 7 November, the latter on 7 May [Simonet, Hispano-Mozarabic Santoral drawn from the astronomical calendar published in 961 by Recemund, bishop of Iliberis, in the Madrid periodical La Ciudad de Dios, vol. V, 1871, pp. 198, 207. Compare Nicolás Antonio, Bibliotheca Hispana Vetus, vol. I, pp. 475, 467.], but afterward fell away so that no memory of their veneration survived. Nor, as far as concerns Masona, are we thrown back on conjectures alone. For, as Francisco Pérez Bayer has already warned Bibliotheca Hispana, volume cited, p. 351, note 1., in a codex of the Escorial library at Madrid, written at the end of the 12th century or the beginning of the next, there is preserved an old breviary where it is indicated that the feast of St. Masona is celebrated together with that of Damasus, and a prayer common to both is given. The matter was examined again accurately at our request by the most learned Aureliano Fernández Guerra, and he taught us that all that is read in Bayer's note is consonant with the truth of things (except that by a slight error the mark of the codex is indicated as Plut. III, lit. L, no. 4, where it should have been written III. L. 3). In that codex then, after the feasts of St. Leocadia (9 December) and of St. Eulalia (10 December) and of St. Paul the martyr, there is announced Of the Saints Damasus (thus) and Masona, and this prayer is appended: Mercifully bestow on us, we beseech you, O Lord, your mercy, by the intercession of your holy confessors and pontiffs Damasus and Masona, and be propitious to us sinners by their suffrages.

[4] on 11 December. Why then, you will say, do you not put off the Acts of St. Masona to 11 December? I confess that from the cited document a sure argument is now afforded for attributing that day to our saint. Yet, since besides Juan Tamayo, Castellano assigns him the day 1 November in his Universal Martyrology (relying surely, as it seems, on no other authority than that of the same Tamayo), while on the contrary except in that manuscript breviary he is nowhere noted at 11 December, we shall have, I believe, an easy excuse among the learned if we have not put off our treatment of St. Masona and his predecessors and successors to that immense interval of time, the more so because on this occasion it will be permitted to bring forward the long-desired more accurate edition of that document which is deservedly held in the greatest value among the chief sources of the ecclesiastical history of Spain, I mean the book On the Lives and Merits of the Holy Fathers of Mérida, of which we must now treat more distinctly.

[5] [The book On the Lives of the Fathers of Mérida was first published by Bernabé Moreno and Tomás Tamayo,] This book was first made public by Bernabé Moreno de Vargas, decurion of the city of Mérida (who also wrote the history of the same city), at Madrid in the year 1633, from a codex which Fernando Enríquez de Ribera, Duke of Alcalá, had given to the city of Mérida Ibid., p. 373; Flórez, España Sagrada, vol. XIII, p. 331, no. 32.: how old that codex was we do not know; and the edition itself teems with innumerable faults. Then a second time, but unaware of Moreno's edition, by Tomás Tamayo de Vargas at Antwerp, at the house of Jan Meursius, in the year 1638, from eight codices, which he reviews in these words: 1. From the library of the church of Toledo, written in Gothic letters. 2. A Gothic one from the royal Hieronymite library at the Escorial. I think it was once from the monastery of St. Valerius of Carracedo. There are here several copies of Paul (by this name namely they are accustomed to designate the author of the little work) Compare below, no. 9. written in Latin letters, all of which it was not within our leisure to collate. 3. From the library of the illustrious Don Juan Beltrán de Guevara, archbishop of Compostela… Transcribed in Latin letters by a learned man, as it appeared, it was indicated at the very threshold. 4. Also written in Latin letters, from the library of the noble man Don Juan de Fonseca y Figueroa…; afterward transferred to the library of the Most Serene Ferdinand, Infante of Spain, cardinal of Toledo. I should believe that it was transcribed from Beltrán's, since it teemed with the same faults. 5. Also Latin, from Álvar Gómez de Castro, the distinguished man of Santa Eulalia; Francisco de Pisa of Toledo, doctor of theology… had it. 6. Latin, of Antonio de Covarrubias, royal counselor,… the most correct of all. 7. Gothic, interpolated in some places by the hand of the illustrious García de Loaysa, archbishop of Toledo. 8. Another Gothic, which that great ornament of Spain, Juan de Mariana, S.J., used… His fellow Jesuits have it today, among whom he was entombed at Toledo. The age of these codices Tamayo has disclosed to us by no indication, nor has he distinguished any variations of the individual ones, although he tried to illustrate with a continuous annotation the text itself compiled from these codices. The edition of Tomás Tamayo was taken up by Cardinal de Aguirre in vol. II of the Councils of Spain, by Juan Tamayo in his Spanish Martyrology at 1 November (adding however some things from the apocrypha cited in Tomás's annotations as though they were part of the book itself), and finally in our days by Migne in his Latin Patrology Vol. LXXX, p. 113 and following.. From the same edition our forebears excerpted the Acts of St. Nunctus (22 Oct.), St. Fidelis (7 Feb.) and St. Renovatus (9 Mar.).

[6] third by Francisco de Bivar, A third edition was set up in the year 1651, by one himself too plainly ignorant of both preceding editions, Francisco de Bivar, from a codex of his monastery of Nucalensis, which he judged to be of an antiquity of more than four hundred years and consequently written in the 13th century. There was lacking in that codex, and hence is lacking in the Bivar edition, the first part of the little work, which in the other editions, with its preface, is set before the history of the five bishops of Mérida. Further, it must be noted that the division and titles of the chapters in Moreno and Tamayo are not indeed supplied by the editors, yet they are not found in the older codices. This Tomás Tamayo distinctly indicated in an annotation to the preface of the whole booklet, adding that in two of the copies he had, written in a recent hand, these words are added at the beginning: In the book of Paul of Mérida on the Life and miracles of the Fathers of Mérida, index of chapters. For we have divided it into chapters for the sake of distinction.

[7] fourth by Enrique Flórez. A fourth edition finally we owe to Enrique Flórez España Sagrada, vol. XIII, p. 335 and following., who however prepared it not from manuscript codices, but from the three earlier editions collated with one another, in such a way as to insert in the text what seemed to him the better readings, yet indicating the variations in annotations set at the foot of each page. He was able moreover to emend some things from a certain codex of the royal library of Madrid, which indeed contained nothing else but the preface and the narrative of the first miracle, and consequently only a tiny part of the whole little work Compare ibid., pp. 333–334, no. 40.

[8] Our edition of the same little work. So no edition of the precious booklet has hitherto appeared from any certain codex of known antiquity, nor in our days did the most learned writer the Reverend Father Pius Gams, O.S.B., diligently searching in Spain for codices containing it, find others besides apographs of a more recent age, five or six in number Church History of Spain, vol. II, part II, p. 115.. That gap we are now able to fill, after we have received a most accurate copy of the codex formerly of the monastery of San Millán, now kept in the library of the Royal Academy of History at Madrid under the number F. 177, written in Visigothic character in the tenth century. An apograph of this excellent copy, most diligently written out by himself, was sent to us by a man most versed in the study of Spanish matters, a great friend of ours, who has more than once deserved exceedingly well of our work, the Reverend Father Jules Tailhan, of the Society of Jesus, whose name therefore equity altogether demands be inscribed on this edition. What rules we have followed in preparing it, we shall set forth below Annotation at the head of the booklet.. The whole little work may seem to have been divided into two parts by the writer himself, not indeed by titles, but by setting a separate preface before each part Compare below, no. 12.. Of these parts the latter alone contains the Lives of the holy pontiffs, while the former contains certain prodigies obtained, as the author thinks, by the intercession of St. Eulalia. Yet we have not thought that this should be omitted, both lest the writing be presented less than whole, and especially because it contains some things which are of the greatest help for solving questions about the person of the author and his age and certain others.

§ II. On the writer of the booklet on the lives of the Fathers of Mérida.

[The writer's name is uncertain; he was a Romano-Spaniard and a cleric of the church of St. Eulalia.] Now as far as concerns the author of the booklet, all the editors indicated above with unanimous consent mark him with the name of Paul, deacon of Mérida. From what codices they drew this (for they bring forward no other argument) they have not indicated. Certainly that name is not read in the codex of San Millán, nor even in the letter of Alfonso III, king of León (866–910), to the clergy and people of Tours, where he says: We too have the life, virtue and wonders of many illustrious men, namely of the men of Mérida, plainly and wisely written Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, notes of André Duchesne, p. 51.: nor consequently has it seemed good to us to inscribe it on the booklet. It may be conjectured that our writer was by birth a Romano-Spaniard from the beginning of the Life of Masona Beginning of no. 22., where not without some appearance of contempt the holy bishop is said to have been INDEED a Goth by family, BUT most promptly and thoroughly devoted in mind to the Lord. It is more certain that he was a cleric of the basilica of St. Eulalia at Mérida: for he both names himself a Levite Beginning of no. 4., and End of the same. calls St. Eulalia his Lady, and moreover plainly indicates Nos. 1, 4. that he was staying in the same house with that boy Augustus of whom the first miracle treats, namely in the house or cloister of the excellent virgin Eulalia Beginning of no. 1., and that he was given to the divine offices there, that is, in the adjoining church Ibid.. That by the name of Levite a deacon is understood is quite probable, yet not plainly beyond doubt. But as for Moreno's judging that our author was archdeacon of the basilica of St. Eulalia, he gathered this only from these words: Wherefore I, unworthy and first of all sinners, Levite of Christ Beginning of no. 4., namely joining that word primus not with the preceding peccatorum, but with the following levita, so that according to this interpretation the author would have professed himself not the first of sinners, but the first Levite or archdeacon of the church of St. Eulalia. But, as Flórez rightly notes España Sagrada, vol. XIII, p. 326, no. 20., Moreno himself contradicted this opinion of his in his edition, inserting a comma after primus and before levita, and not after peccatorum, which it is sufficiently clear was rightly done by him. Nor do I think we should linger in refuting the opinion

of Mabillon, who judged that the church of St. Eulalia had been a monastery and our writer a Benedictine monk: for this our colleague, recently called to those above, Benjamin Bossue, has sufficiently done Comment. on St. Nunctus, nos. 5–7 (Act. SS., vol. IX Oct., p. 597). .

But I cannot pass over the conjecture which, if I remember rightly, the aforementioned Fr. Julius Tailhan suggested to me, that the name Paul was attributed to our writer by some more recent person because he saw him, in the preface to the whole little book, praising Gregory the Great, and read "levite", that is, as he interpreted it, deacon, whereas from another source there is known a certain Paul the Deacon, writer of the Life of Gregory the Great P. L., vol. LXXV, p. 41. .

[10] [What Th. Tamayo and Flórez have thought about his age does not seem sufficiently demonstrated] As with his name, so also his age the author has not distinctly indicated. Thomas Tamayo P. L., vol. LXXX, p. 163, note a. and Enrique Flórez Esp. Sagr., vol. cit., p. 213, n. 158. nevertheless think that he wrote while Stephen I presided over the see of Mérida, that is, before the year 638 Ibid., p. 214, n. 160 and p. 330, n. 29. , led by this argument alone, that the last of the bishops of Mérida named in our little book is Renovatus, the predecessor of Stephen I: yet this argument Nicolás Antonio Bibl. Hisp. Vet., vol. I, p. 374, n. 232. seems to me to have sufficiently refuted, when he observes that the author's purpose was to describe the lives not of all the bishops of Mérida, but only of those who were illustrious for miracles, an aim which he not obscurely signifies in both prefaces, to the first and to the second part. On the other side, however, I am compelled to agree with Flórez in contradicting Esp. Sagr., vol. cit., p. 328, nn. 26, 27. Antonio himself, where the latter Bibl. Hisp., loc. cit. thinks that a perhaps much later age is indicated where the author, speaking of what was done under King Leovigild, reports that these things happened many courses of years before now No. 7. . For that by those many courses of years a space of more than fifty years ought not to be understood is sufficiently established from other places in the same little work. For the author writes both that Paul, bishop of Mérida, a Greek by nation and a physician by profession, came from the regions of the East into the city of Mérida, surely well grown, and that he shone there in sanctity for a long time before his episcopate No. 9. ; and then that the same Paul had already discharged the episcopal office for very many years when Greek merchants came to Mérida, accompanied by a boy named Fidelis No. 12. , whom the holy bishop recognized to be the son of his sister, and kept with him, joined to his clergy, and had as his immediate successor, after he had served God blamelessly in the clergy for many years No. 13. . Renovatus also is said to have ruled the church of Mérida for very many years No. 50. , who nevertheless, unless we suppose the episcopate of Innocent his predecessor to have been very brief Cf. below, Annot. a, on ch. XXI. , did not preside over that church for more than sixteen years. From these places, therefore, it is rightly gathered that "many courses of years" in our author does not necessarily presuppose so very long an interval of time.

[11] from their arguments; Stronger indeed may seem the confirmation which Flórez Esp. Sagr., vol. cit., p. 329, n. 28. urges for his opinion from the opening of the second chapter, which in the editions hitherto published is framed in these words: There were VERY MANY fit men, NOT a great many years ago, by the divine clemency, in the province of Lusitania, who REPORT a miracle of our Saviour performed, when in the monastery whose name is Cauliana, which is situated not far from the city of Mérida, being distant about eight miles, the most reverend man of pious memory Renovatus was abbot, and who afterwards also became the wonderful pontiff of the city of Mérida… No. 5. . In this place that present tense "report" shows that at the time when our levite was writing, many were still surviving who had been present at the thing related, or at least had known the monk in question, they themselves being surely of adult age, and that at the time when Renovatus did not yet preside over the church of Mérida: and since he certainly departed this life before the year 633 Cf. below, Annot. a on ch. XXI. , after he had blamelessly ruled the church for very many years De vitis PP. Emer., n. 50. , he must be judged to have received the pontifical insignia around the year 615. The reported prodigy therefore happened at the beginning of the seventh century, and since it is narrated to have happened not a great many years before, and its witnesses, very many or numerous, were known to the writer, Flórez seems to himself legitimately to conclude that he applied himself to composing his little book under Stephen I, the successor of Renovatus. But against this argument it is objected that in the codex of San Millán, at the opening of the chapter cited, one does not read "NOT a great many years ago" but "a great many years before US" (ante NOS satis plurimos annos), which gives an entirely contrary sense, and that this reading seems in itself more probable from the particle satis which is read placed before the word plurimos, not inelegantly if the word immediately preceding be read as nos, altogether insipidly if not. Moreover, I do not see why that present ferunt must necessarily be interpreted to signify witnesses, as they call them, from sight: those fit men could, that is, report the matter from hearing, and accordingly a matter that even as regards themselves had been transacted a great many years before.

[12] but it is more effectively proved from the preface to the whole little book These arguments being set aside, other paths must be taken in order that we may be able to define to some extent the age of our writer. And the matter will indeed be readily settled if it be admitted, as seems to us altogether to be admitted, that the preface set before the first part of the little book is to be referred not to the first miracle alone, whose narrative follows in chapter I, but to the whole little work Cf. below, Annot. f on that preface. . For, this being admitted, it is certainly gathered from the end of the preface that our writer was not a strictly contemporary or eyewitness, but a nearly contemporary witness of the things he relates. For he indicates that he wishes to narrate what happened IN PRESENT TIMES in the city of Mérida, and what he himself heard with his own ears from THOSE RELATING it, who at the time when he was writing had already gone forth from the body. Nothing clearer, surely, can be desired.

[13] and by other indications: But this conclusion on the age of our writer is confirmed also by not a few other indications. For where, in the second part of his little book, he undertakes to narrate the deeds of the five bishops whose bodies rest in the basilica of St. Eulalia, he signifies that he will narrate them as they were brought to him by the report of many Ch. IV, prologue. . Then, where he speaks of Innocent, who was fourth in order of time among the bishops whose Acts are presented here, he so writes that it is altogether evident that while this bishop held the see he either did not live at Mérida or was quite young: Who at the same time at which he was ordained, AS IT IS SAID, was held to be the last in the order of deacons. Finally he IS REPORTED to have been of such sanctity and such compunction that whenever rain was lacking… No. 49. . Certainly a man who had himself beheld them would not have used these modes of speech in describing things placed in the sight of all. Finally, the things also that occurred in the times of King Leovigild (a. 569–586) seem to him ancient deeds of the elders No. 7. : which mode of speech again shows the writer to be younger than these events. And yet from this place which we have cited last it may be gathered that our writer was not so very far removed in age from the things narrated. For, having finished the narrative of the prodigy which happened to Renovatus when he was not yet bishop, and accordingly before the year 615 or certainly 620, and being about to narrate another which he attaches to the times of King Leovigild, he passes from the one to the other in these words: While we are eager to narrate recent things, we had omitted the ANCIENT deeds OF THE ELDERS. Assuredly one who could set two events separated by an interval of less than fifty years against each other as recent to ancient must have been not very far distant from the later of them, indeed from both. For what holds in the measure of space holds also in the measure of time, that the farther we ourselves recede from things, the smaller the interval, and the nearer, the greater the interval at which the things themselves seem to stand from one another. Hence therefore we are altogether led to this opinion, that we judge the little book on the lives of the holy Fathers of Mérida to have been composed not after, but before the middle of the seventh century. Nor do the Acts of St. Masona afford a contemptible confirmation of this conclusion. Where the things relating to the persecution of King Leovigild against the Catholics, and the rest that followed, are narrated so copiously, and adorned with such an abundance of circumstances and with the distinct naming of many men who took part in those affairs, that the writer seems to be judged to have received them from the report of eyewitnesses (for no one will here think of written documents). Now these things were done between the years 580 and 590.

[14] nor is the kind of writing inconsistent with that age. Certainly the rusticity of speech which easily appears to those reading our little book must be judged not to be inconsistent with the character of those times. For one may reproach our author also with what Gregory of Tours used to object against himself De gloria conf., Præf. (P. L., vol. LXXI, p. 829). : You put accusatives for ablatives (after the prepositive particles in, pro), and again ablatives for accusatives (after per, de, cum, ante). Very frequently, too, verbs passive and those which more recent grammarians call deponent are expressed in the active form, and sometimes conversely actives exhibit the passive form; the indicative mood is used for the subjunctive after the conjunctive particle ut; for the pronoun quæ in the nominative or accusative case the form qua is substituted; the disjunctive words aut, vel, are used here and there for et, and dum also here and there for cum. I omit other things which seem rather to be ascribed to the copyist Cf. below, Annot. at the head of the little book. . Yet the style in the levite of Mérida is not so barbarous as to mark a man alien from the pursuit of letters: for neither abundance of words nor fit connection of thoughts is wanting in him. As for the matters themselves, if you except the last years of Masona, he is wholly occupied, as writers of this kind generally are, in describing virtues and miracles, and if he mentions any other things on the occasion of these, he touches on them in the manner in which conversation about them could readily be begun among pious clerics of the inferior order. The deeper causes of deeds or counsels, or things that pertain to the affairs of the state, you would seek in him in vain. Finally, he distinctly indicates no notes of time.

§ III. The chronology of the Acts of St. Masona.

Masona flourished under Kings Leovigild and Reccared. What on this matter of such moment from the Emeritan

levite's little book can be gathered are reduced to about this, that Masona held the pontificate under Kings Leovigild and Reccared and departed this life in decrepit old age. From other documents, however, it is possible to fill that gap to some extent. Among these must be set in the first place the Chronicle of John, abbot of Biclaro, afterwards bishop of Gerona, who lived in Spain in the very times of St. Masona. In him, however, only these few words are read concerning our saint: In the 7th year of the Emperor Justin, which is the 5th year of Leovigild (that is, in the year of the Christian era 573)… Mausona, bishop of Mérida, is held illustrious in our doctrine Migne, P. L., vol. LXXII, pp. 864–865. . Where Flórez Esp. Sagr., vol. XIII, pp. 201–202. rightly observes, against some, that it does not indicate the year in which St. Masona was consecrated bishop, but when, being already bishop, he was held illustrious.

[16] He took part in the Councils of Toledo of the years 589 and 597. Two certain years of the episcopate of St. Masona are furnished, moreover, by the celebrated Third Council of Toledo of the year 589, in which, in the presence of King Reccared and sixty-two bishops, the Arian heresy was renounced by the nation of the Visigoths, and by another likewise of Toledo (which, however, is not distinguished by a particular number, perhaps because it was not of the whole province, but only three metropolitans came to it and besides these ten or thirteen other bishops) of the year 597. For Masona presided over both as the most ancient of the metropolitans and subscribed first of the bishops. The former subscription runs thus: Massona, in the name of Christ metropolitan bishop of the Catholic church of Mérida of the province of Lusitania, assenting to these constitutions, at which I was present in the city of Toledo, have subscribed Aguirre, Conc. Hisp., vol. III, p. 235; Mansi, Conc., vol. IX, p. 1000. . And the other: Massona, in the name of Christ bishop of Mérida, have subscribed Aguirre, p. 305; Mansi, vol. X, p. 478. .

[17] The letter of St. Isidore to Masona, suspect to some, As a fourth document for the chronology of the deeds of St. Masona we have the canonical letter of St. Isidore which, after others, Faustino Arévalo published Vol. VI, pp. 563–565; Migne, P. L., vol. LXXXIII, p. 899. in his splendid edition of the works of St. Isidore, inscribed thus: To the lord, holy and blessed in merits, Massona, Bishop Isidore; and subscribed: Given on the day before the kalends of March in the third year of the reign of our lord the most glorious King Witteric, that is, in the year of the Christian era 605 or 606 Cf. below, Annot. b on ch. XVII. . That this letter is authentic many have denied or at least held it suspect, among them Morin, Cellarius, Dupin, Oudin, Natalis Alexander and Cardinal de Aguirre; but Enrique Flórez Esp. Sagr., vol. XIII, pp. 203–205. and Arévalo [Isidoriana, ch. 73, nn. 11–22 (Isidori opp. vol. I, p. 630 ff.; P. L. vol. LXXXI, p. 495 ff.).] have defended it as genuine. The arguments against its authenticity are reduced to this, that the doctrine of this letter, where Isidore pronounces that he (a bishop or priest) can be restored to his own honour who through the satisfaction of penance has learned to weep for his own offences: that doctrine, I say, is contrary to the discipline of the Spanish church, indeed even to Isidore himself in book II of De ecclesiasticis officiis, ch. 5, and in the letter to Helladius.

[18] it is read in not a few ancient codices; The defenders of its authenticity may allege first of all the abundance of manuscript codices which have preserved the letter for us. Those codices can be distributed into two classes. The one consists of those which contain the books of the Sentences of St. Isidore and prefix to them, in place of a prologue, the letter to Masona. To this belong the Lucca codex of the 11th century Ibid., ch. 43, n. 27. , a Florentine likewise of the 11th century Ibid., nn. 28, 30. , the Pistoia codex of the 12th century Ibid., n. 31. Cf. ch. 46, n. 12. , Vatican 632 of the 13th or 14th century Ibid., ch. 94, n. 24 (vol. II, p. 247). , Vatican-Urbinas 106 of the 15th century Ibid., ch. 104, n. 19 (p. 383). and that of Sant'Angelo at Rome of the 15th century Ibid., ch. 107, n. 18 (p. 419). . To the other, where that letter is read copied separately, belong the Pomposa codex of the 11th century Ibid., ch. 46, n. 9 (vol. I, p. 392). , Vatican 1344 of the 10th century Ibid., ch. 96, n. 7 (vol. II, p. 261). , Vatican 5751, as regards this part, of the 10th century Ibid., ch. 98, n. 8 (p. 288). , Vatican-Palatine 973 of the 9th or 10th century Ibid., ch. 103, n. 25 (p. 364). , Vatican-Ottoboni 312 of the 10th century Ibid., ch. 105, n. 16 (p. 399). and another, 14, of about the 12th century Ibid., n. 4 (p. 394). . If these seem to anyone not so very many among so great a mass of codices as Arévalo reviews in the fourth part of his Prolegomena, I would have him consider that not all the works of Isidore are presented in each of these codices, but a few and diverse ones, and that it is no wonder that certain lesser pieces, such as the letter to Masona, are from time to time passed over rather than those which were commonly extolled and commended, of which kind are the commentaries on Holy Scripture, the books of the Etymologies, of the Sentences, of the Ecclesiastical Offices, etc. It must be observed moreover that the codices which contain the letter to Masona are for the most part outstanding in antiquity. But Enrique Flórez Esp. Sagr., vol. XIII, p. 203, n. 138. indicates also certain others, from Canisius and Du Breul.

[19] nor to the doctrine of Isidore expressed in his other writings But to the principal argument of the adversaries a not improbable reply is opposed by Arévalo Isidor., ch. 73, nn. 15–18 (pp. 633–635). . "However, if I see anything (so he says), the letter to Massona not only, considered in itself, is most worthy of Isidore, but also presents nothing contrary either to the books De ecclesiasticis officiis or to the letter to Helladius. I pass over the fact that this very letter to Helladius seems spurious to others, and for perhaps weightier reasons. Certainly the letter to Massona is not to be rejected because it is contrary to the letter to Helladius, nor again the latter because it is opposed to the other. There is indeed, as I was saying, no disagreement, unless the letter to Massona be said to disagree with and contradict itself. From the letter to Helladius and from the cited place of De Officiis eccles. it is argued only that after a bodily fall the merit of the former order is by no means to be restored. The words of the letter to Helladius are: We demand that the same fallen man, being presented to your holy assembly, the utterance of his confession having been acknowledged by you, be deposed by synodal sentence from the priestly rank… For let him know that he who has lost the merit of sanctity has lost the name and office of priest. Wherefore by the decree of your judgment let him deplore his committed crimes with the unceasing lamentation of penance, let him bewail the dignity of the priesthood which he has lost by living badly, etc. Less pressing are the things which Isidore discusses concerning the sanctity of the priest in the cited place of De Officiis: But that he who after baptism has been overtaken by some mortal sin should not be promoted to the priesthood, the law itself testifies… But why should I add more? For if he who, being already placed in the episcopate or presbyterate, has committed some mortal sin is withdrawn from office, how much more let him who is found a sinner before ordination not be ordained… For he who reproves another for sins ought himself to be a stranger to sin.

[20] so contradicts All these things, and perhaps in weightier words, Isidore asserts in the letter to Massona, but in such a way that he brings them into concord with canon 19 of the Council of Ancyra, by which it is prescribed that in a bodily fall the grade of honour is to be restored after penance. But, he says, as to what your venerable fraternity has subsequently made known in your letters, no diversity of decrees is to be understood in sentences of this kind, in that it is read in one place that in a bodily fall the man's grade is to be restored after penance, in another that after an offence of this kind the merit of the former order is by no means to be restored. Do you see how Isidore even in this letter maintains that after a bodily fall the merit of the former order is by no means to be restored? Hear now Isidore himself bringing canons apparently diverse to concord. For this diversity is distinguished in this way: The canon commands those to return to their former grades of office whom the satisfaction of penance or a worthy confession of sins has preceded; but on the contrary those who are neither amended from the vice of corruption, and who strive even to vindicate with a certain superstitious rashness this very carnal offence which they commit, receive certainly neither the grade of honour nor the grace of communion… Not undeservedly do these obtain the state of the dignity taken away who through the amendment of penance are known to have received the remedy of life. And after more: Behold, as far as I have been able, I have plainly explained with sacred testimonies the ancient and authoritative sentence of the Council of Ancyra, showing that he can be restored to his own honour who through the satisfaction of penance has learned to weep for his own offences; but that he who neither mourns what he has done, but commits things to be mourned without any shame of religion or fear of divine judgment, can in no way be restored to his former grade.

[21] that with the same it could easily The doctrine of Isidore, therefore, consistent with itself on every side, is this, that he who through a fall of the flesh or any other grave offence has lost the grade of his dignity can never at any time recover it unless he produce worthy fruits of penance, so that through amendment he may be known to have received the remedy of life. Wherefore in the cited place of De Offic. eccles. he concludes: Let him who neglects to do right cease to teach right. For he who strives to admonish others to live well ought first to correct himself. And if in the letter to Helladius perpetual penance is indicated as to be imposed on the bishop of Córdoba, perhaps certain graver crimes demanded this: for it is said of him: sunk from the height of honour into the depth of crimes, a ruin to be wept for… Let him mourn the state of his soul, which he has defiled with so great a mire of putridity. Yet it is hinted that there can be room for restitution, when it is added: Perhaps the Holy Spirit will at some time stretch out a hand to him, so that through worthy satisfaction he may merit the remission of sins. Moreover, it is one thing that the penance enjoined should be perpetual on the part of the penitent, so to speak, because he himself could not demand reparation by right, and another that it should be in the power of the bishop or of the council to admit, by indulgence, to his former grade a fallen presbyter or bishop who had shown peculiar signs of penance and contrition."

[22] not be reconciled, Thus far Arévalo, whose words I have thought it right to report entire, although I do not admit the force of the reply in every respect. I admit, namely, what is the chief thing, that there is between the letter to Helladius and the letter to Masona no such contradiction that one of them ought to be judged spurious; I do not admit that the doctrine of Isidore in both is so consistent with itself on every side that in the second he in no way departed from what he had proposed in the first. I judge, therefore,

that Isidore earlier followed that severer opinion and proposed what would take away from a fallen priest all hope of restitution; but afterwards, when the canon of the Council of Ancyra had been set before him by Masona, which Isidore either had not known or had not attended to, he mitigated that opinion so that it could in some way be brought back into concord with the canon set before him.

[23] just as also with the discipline of the Spanish church: In like manner I think that the force of Arévalo's reply to the other part of the adversaries' argument must be restricted, which he proposes thus: "That the doctrine delivered by Isidore in the letter to Massona on the restoration of a fallen priest was not contrary to the discipline of the Spanish church can be gathered both from the letter of Innocent I to the Fathers of the Council of Toledo, and from the Thirteenth Council of Toledo in the year 683, canon 10, and finally more clearly from the Council of Lérida in the year 564, in others 524, canon 5, where these things are decreed: Those who serve at the altar of God, if they should suddenly collapse into the lamentable frailty of the flesh, and, the Lord looking upon them, should worthily repent, so that, the body being mortified, they offer to God the sacrifice of a contrite heart, let it remain in the power of the pontiff either not to suspend long those truly afflicted, or to separate the slothful for a more prolonged time from the body of the Church: yet in such a way that they so receive the places of their offices that they cannot be promoted further to higher offices, etc. Add the letter of Bachiarius, a Spanish writer of about the year 400, to Januarius on the Restoration of a Fallen Man, or on Restoring the Fallen." I judge these things, therefore, to be true to this extent, that the discipline of the Spanish church itself in this matter was not always and everywhere consistent with itself, but, although in those first centuries it generally showed itself severe rather than mild, yet at times, according to time and place, it did not shrink from some remission. From that severer position, therefore, Isidore withdrew in the letter to Masona, and, pressed by the canon of Ancyra, accommodated himself to the more indulgent.

[24] [from it we have it that Masona had not yet departed from the living in the year 605.] The authenticity of the aforesaid letter being now, then, as it seems to us, sufficiently established by these reasons, we must inquire in what year it was sent. It is read in the subscription to have been given on the day before the kalends of March in the third year of the reign of King Witteric Cf. above, no. 17. . Now Witteric began to reign, by the testimony of Isidore [Hist. de regibus Gothorum, n. 58 (Isidori opp., vol. VII, p. 126; Migne, P. L., vol. LXXXIII, p. 1073).] , in the era 641, in the 21st year of the reign of Maurice, that is, in the Christian year 603. The letter was therefore written in the year 605, if Witteric obtained the kingdom of the Goths in the month of January or February; in the year 606, if he took up the kingdom after the month of February. And hence it is further gathered that St. Masona was still among the living in the year 605 or 606. Yet he did not long survive after that: for Innocent his successor is read to have subscribed in the year 610 to the constitution of King Gundemar on the primacy of the church of Toledo [Aguirre, Conc. Hisp., vol. III, p. 324; Mansi, vol. X, p. 511. Cf. below, Annot. a on ch. XXI.] , and indeed in the second place among four metropolitans, and thus as one who had obtained his dignity not so recently. But in what certain year or on what day he died is not yet established from genuine documents. This alone, therefore, remains beyond doubt, that Masona was already bishop in the year 573, held the see at least until the year 605 and departed from the living before the year 610. And since we learn from his Life that he reached a quite decrepit age PP. Emer. no. 46. , he assuredly will not have strayed far from the truth who should judge that he was born around the year 530 and adorned with the episcopal insignia around the year 570.

[25] The exile of Masona is to be attached to the year 582, Moreover it is possible to define with sufficient certainty or very high probability at what time the things were done that are read in the last chapters of the Life of St. Masona. First of all, it can scarcely be doubtful to anyone that the exile of the holy bishop is to be attached to that great persecution, inflicted on the Christians in the Spains, which Gregory of Tours refers to the fifth year of King Childebert, or of Christ 580, in which many were given over to exile, deprived of their means, wasted with hunger, consigned to prison, afflicted with blows and slaughtered with various tortures Hist. Franc., bk. V, ch. 38. , and that the occasion of this persecution was the war which Hermenegild, son of King Leovigild, recently converted from the Arian heresy to the Catholic Church, undertook against his father in that same year 580 Joan. Biclar. Cf. below, § IV. . At this time, therefore, the Arian bishop Sunna could have invaded certain churches of the Catholics at Mérida. And since some space of time must be conceded to those conflicts and machinations by which the same man assailed St. Masona PP. Emer., nos. 27–29. , the exile of our saint may readily be deferred to the year 582. After three years passed in exile Ibid., no. 32. he returned to Mérida, therefore in the year 585. All this is confirmed by the fact that our writer, immediately after the return of Masona, reports the death of King Leovigild, and he closed his last day in the eighteenth year of his reign, the fourth of the Emperor Maurice, that is, the Christian year 586 Joan. Biclar. (P. L., vol. LXXII, p. 868). .

[26] The exile of Sunna and the disaster of the Franks in the years 587 and 588. Next, in the 6th year of Maurice, which is the 2nd year of Reccared (of Christ 587), certain of the Arians, Bishop Sunna and Seggo, with certain others, desiring to seize tyrannical power, are detected. Having been convicted, Sunna is thrust into exile… Ibid. ; and in the 7th year of Maurice, which is the 3rd of King Reccared (of Christ 588)… an army of the Franks sent by King Guntram, with Boso as commander, arrive in Narbonese Gaul and pitched camp near the city of Carcassonne. Claudius, duke of Lusitania, sent by King Reccared, meets him there; battle being joined with him, the Franks are turned to flight, and the camp of the Franks is plundered, and the army is slaughtered by the Goths… Joan. Bicl. (P. L., vol. LXXII, p. 868). . By these testimonies it is plainly shown to what years should be attached the things narrated more fully about those deeds in the Acts of St. Masona Chs. XVIII, XIX. .

§ IV. Whether St. Masona, by adhering to the party of Hermenegild, incurred the anger of Leovigild.

[That Masona should not be thought to have been a sharer in the rebellion of Hermenegild] From what has been said of the time of St. Masona's exile a suspicion could readily arise in someone that the cause of this exile was that the holy bishop adhered to the party of Hermenegild and thus stirred up the anger of Leovigild against himself. For since Hermenegild acted as defender of Catholic doctrine, and Leovigild of the Arian sect, it is an easy conjecture that the Catholic bishops strove with every effort that the former should overcome the latter. And that suspicion will perhaps seem not a little strengthened by the embassy which is commonly read to have been undertaken on behalf of Hermenegild by St. Leander, bishop of Seville, to the Emperor Tiberius of Constantinople, to induce him to furnish aid to a Catholic king. Moreover, that the city of Mérida was among those cities and fortresses which Hermenegild caused to rebel with him against his father Joan. Biclar., cited in the next no. is gathered from Gregory of Tours, who Hist. Franc., bk. VI, ch. 18 says: In these days (that is, in the seventh year of King Childebert, or of Christ 582), King Leuvichild was staying in the army against his son Herminichild, from whom he also took away the city of Mérida. And that the year 582 was marked by the exile of Masona we have indicated above.

[28] it stands in the way that that rebellion, by the testimony of John of Biclaro, Yet that suspicion too is dispelled with easy labour. For with unanimous and wonderful consent the Spanish ecclesiastical writers of that age either altogether and sharply disapprove the designs of Hermenegild against his father, or at least altogether refrain from praising him, nor does any celebrate him as a martyr, which other writers before us also have noted not without wonder [Cf. Arévalo, Isidoriana, ch. 79, nn. 25–41 (P. L., vol. LXXXI, p. 553 ff.); Gams, Kirchengesch. van Spanien, vol. II, part II, pp. 1–5.] . John of Biclaro in his Chronicle: In the 3rd year of the Emperor Tiberius, which is the 11th year of Leovigild (of Christ 580)… his son (Leovigild's) Hermenegild, seizing tyrannical power through the faction of Queen Gosuintha, having made rebellion, is shut up in the city of Seville, and causes other cities and fortresses to rebel with him against his father. Which cause in the province of Spain was to Goths as well as Romans a greater destruction than the harassment of enemies P. L., vol. LXXII, p. 866. . Of the rest of Hermenegild's history the Biclaran delivers only this: In the 6th year of Tiberius, which is the 14th year of Leovigild… King Leovigild gathers an army to overcome his son the tyrant. — In the first year of the Emperor Maurice, which is the 15th year of Leovigild, King Leovigild, having gathered an army, besieges the city of Seville and shuts up his rebellious son in a heavy siege. — In the 2nd year of the Emperor Maurice, which is the 16th year of Leovigild… King Leovigild, his son Hermenegild going over to the Empire, enters Seville by fighting, took the cities and fortresses which his son had occupied, and not long after seized the said son in the city of Córdoba, and, deprived of the kingdom, sent him into exile at Valencia. Finally in the 3rd year of Maurice, which is the 18th year of Leovigild… Hermenegild is killed in the city of Tarragona by Sisbert. A little further down, indeed, the Biclaran reports besides, at year I of Reccared: Sisbert, the slayer of Hermenegild, is destroyed by a most shameful death; but neither in this place does he bring forward anything in praise or excuse of Hermenegild. These things so offended Aguirre that he judged the Chronicle of the Biclaran in the cited places to have been adulterated by the Arians Conc. Hisp., vol. III, p. 310. , but by an altogether gratuitous conjecture.

[29] St. Isidore of Seville, And Isidore of Seville in his Chronicle says: The Goths, divided in two by Hermenegild, son of King Leovigild, are laid waste by mutual slaughter P. L., vol. LXXXIII, p. 1055, n. 117. . And in the History of the Kings of the Goths, Vandals and Suevi, ch. 49: (Leovigild) overcame, having besieged him, his son Hermenegild, who was tyrannizing over his dominions Ibid., p. 1071. ; and ch. 91: (Miro, king of the Suevi) goes to the aid of Leovigild, king of the Goths, to Seville to overcome his rebellious son Ibid., p. 1082. . The same Isidore in the book De viris illustribus, ch. 41 Ibid., p. 1103. , weaving the elogium of Leander, his elder brother, praises his writings against the Arians and his industry in converting the Goths from their heresy, but makes not even a word's mention of Hermenegild's having been brought to the true faith by his work.

[30] St. Leander his brother, Leander himself also is altogether silent about Hermenegild in his sermon in which he celebrated the conversion of the Goths at the Third Council of Toledo in the year 589 P., L. vol. LXXII, p. 893. . But that he performed an embassy on his behalf at Constantinople to the Emperor Tiberius,

they dig this out from the words of Gregory the Great in the preface to the books of the Moralia, addressing Leander thus: Knowing you long ago, most blessed brother, in the city of Constantinople, when the responses of the apostolic see constrained me there, and AN EMBASSY ENJOINED ON YOU FOR THE CAUSES OF THE FAITH OF THE VISIGOTHS BROUGHT YOU THITHER… P. L., vol. LXXV, p. 509. . But by what argument is it proved that that embassy was enjoined on Leander by Hermenegild? Is it not at least equally probable that it was undertaken by Leander on the mandate or petition of the Spanish bishops, who, when Leander in that persecution of Leovigild Cf. above, no. 25. was compelled to go into exile (and indeed in express words Isidore his brother calls his journey to Constantinople the pilgrimage of his exile) Isidor., De viris illustr. ch. 41 (P. L., vol. LXXXIII, p. 1103). , asked him to confer on the affairs of the Spanish church with the emperor, who at that time still held part of Spain? Accordingly, although from the testimony of St. Gregory the Great Dialog., bk. III, ch. 31 (P. L., vol. LXXVII, p. 269). it may be admitted that Leander had some principal part in the conversion of Hermenegild, yet by no reasoning does it follow that the same man was further a sharer in Hermenegild's rebellion against his father.

[31] and our levite of Mérida, To John of Biclaro, Isidore and Leander already cited we may add our levite of Mérida, who, although he had diligently read the Dialogues of Gregory the Great Cf. Preface at the head of the whole little book. , not only covered the history of Hermenegild with silence, but, what is especially worthy of note, when reporting the beginnings of King Reccared and manifestly taking up the words of Gregory, so altered them as to suppress the mention and praise of Hermenegild. For Gregory had said: After whose (Leovigild's) death King Reccared, following not his perfidious father but his MARTYR BROTHER, was converted from the depravity of the Arian heresy Dialog., loc. cit. . But our man of Mérida No. 37. : After whose most cruel death the venerable man Prince Reccared … who, following not his perfidious father but CHRIST THE LORD, was converted from the depravity of the Arian heresy… Nor assuredly can there be accommodated to this writer the reply by which some have tried to elude to some extent the force of the argument drawn from the testimonies above, namely that the Biclaran, Isidore and Leander were deterred by reverence for King Reccared from speaking too ill of his father. For our author both wrote long after the death of Reccared and so assailed Leovigild that it can in no way be supposed that he wished to spare his reputation. For the sake of a specimen let us recall the description of Leovigild's death which is set before the words just brought forward: Therefore since Leovigild did not profit but harmed, destroyed rather than ruled Spain, and no shameful deed or crime remained which he did not claim as his own, deserting God in every respect, indeed himself forsaken by God, he unhappily lost his kingdom together with his life, and, seized by a most grievous disease by the judgment of God, he lost a most foul life and acquired for himself perpetual death, and, his soul having been cruelly loosed from his body, detained in perpetual punishments, consigned everlastingly to the chains of Erebus, he is not undeservedly held bound in Tartarus, to burn in the ever-boiling waves of pitch.

[32] it greatly displeased the Catholic bishops of Spain. From all this, therefore, it seems sufficiently clear how little the designs of Hermenegild pleased the Catholic bishops of Spain, and that they felt no otherwise than Gregory of Tours, who, being about to narrate the last disaster of Hermenegild, by which he came into the hands of his father, so begins: Therefore when Herminichild, as we have said above, was hostile to his father, and was residing in some city of Spain with his wife, … he learned that his father was coming against him with an army, and took counsel how he might either repel or kill him as he came; not knowing, wretched man, that the divine judgment was hanging over him who could plan such things against his father, however heretical Hist. Franc., bk. VI, ch. 43. . Whence finally it must be further concluded (the point to which all this disputation of ours was tending) by how improbable a conjecture anyone would suppose that Masona was driven into exile on account of favour shown to Hermenegild. The rest, however, that can be brought forward to elucidate his history it will be possible to dispatch more conveniently among the Annotations to his Acts.

Of the Lives and Miracles of the Fathers of Mérida

from the codex of the Royal Academy of History of Madrid Fol. 212r ff. Cf. above, Comm. præv., no. 8. .

Mausona, bishop of Mérida in Spain. (S.)

FROM A MANUSCRIPT.

In preparing our edition we have thought it right to adopt this rule, that we should follow the codex as closely as possible in all those things which can be judged to have been written by the author himself Cf. ibid., no. 14. , or at least, where from time to time it was necessary to emend something so that the sense could be understood, that we should diligently warn the reader of this by an added note; but that we should not imitate the manner of writing words proper to the copyist or to his time and region and alien to more recent usage, being content to have indicated in summary at this place what things of this kind we have observed in our codex. Namely, the letter h is here and there suppressed at the beginning of the words (or syllables) hodiernus, hyems, herba, apprehendens, etc., but not of the words homo and hora; for the double letter ae simple e is written (hec, ether, prefatio, etc.); for mihi, nihil: mici, nicil; for convivium: combibium; here and there also occur the forms Eolalia, aliquantolus, incolomis, adulescens, ayo. Moreover, almost everywhere in our codex is read elegere, baselica, for eligere, basilica; and on the contrary deligare, religare for delegare, relegare; it seemed good to preserve both these latter forms in our text, since it can sometimes seem doubtful what sense of the word the writer properly intended, and likewise the form Emereta (Emeretensis), which is here and there used in the codex for the name of the city.

We have added variant readings from the earlier editions (or also, rarely, have proposed them ourselves) only where there arises a suspicion of some fault admitted through the copyist's drowsiness which can be corrected by their help, or where the sense of some word or too obscure sentence is thereby elucidated, or finally where a notable emendation of some reading accepted by other editors was furnished from our codex.

It seemed good to preserve the division and titles of the chapters and the partition of the paragraphs according to the editions of Thomas Tamayo and Enrique Flórez, so that a comparison might more easily be made between these and ours, and that there might be found in ours what is read cited here and there according to those.

IN THE NAME OF THE LORD BEGINS THE BOOK DE VITAS so the cod. Cf. Comm. præv., no. 14. AND MIRACLES OF THE FATHERS OF EMERETA.

Prologue. Preface of this book. — Let no one at all doubt that the miracles of orthodox men, and especially of Catholics, are entirely true, which cod. qua, and so throughout. Cf. Comm. præv., ibid. the most holy and excellent prophet, the prelate of the city of Rome, Gregory, inflamed by the gift of the Paraclete Spirit, published in the books of the Dialogues with the truthful pen of prænotatio ^b: those, namely, which almighty God once deigned to perform by means of his little servants well-pleasing to him for the honour of his name. Let no one on this cod. ab. account burn with any doubt of mind, in that they seem to have been done in ancient times now, and perhaps give them by no means full faith and suppose that the aforesaid most sacred man, the vessel omits cod. of election, the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, darkened some things with vain and cloudy words, since it is made manifest to all, more clearly than the light, by the voice of the Gospel's authority, that the Lord has always worked and works until now ^c. Wherefore, that the faith of all who read or hear may be strengthened by a greater firmness of belief, we narrate these things to have been in present times in the city of Emereta ^d, which we have not come to know by the report of others, nor learned from feigned fables, but which we ourselves heard with our own ears from those relating them ed. eo referente. , who, we do not doubt, wonderfully going forth from their bodies ed. quem e corpore mir. egressum. ^e have reached the ethereal cod. ethera. realms.

ANNOTATED.

of Mérida be embraced. I see that only the adverb "wonderfully" can be opposed, by which the writer seems to signify that the death of the men on whose authority he relies was marked by a miracle: and this suits the boy Augustus very well, but cannot be supposed as to those many who were able to report to him the things which he narrates in the following chapters Gams, vol. II, part II, pp. 217–221. . I by no means deny that the contradiction is not without some difficulty, yet I do not think it prevails against the arguments which are drawn from the antiquity of the codex, from the double inscription and from the tenor of the preface, and accordingly I judge that that "wonderfully" is to be so understood as to signify sanctity rather than prodigies.

CHAPTER I.

The boy Augustus, a minister of the church of St. Eulalia of Mérida, when about to die, is led by a vision to the tribunal of glory.

HERE BEGINS ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE BOY NAMED AUGUSTUS cod. Agusti, and so thereafter. .

[The boy Augustus, lying with a grave illness at Mérida in the cell of St. Eulalia,] A certain little boy not yet of great age and, to speak more fully, a youth, named Augustus, innocent, simple and ignorant of letters, while with the other boys his contemporaries and companions he was with faithful mind carrying out in the house of the excellent virgin Eulalia ^a the ministry of his service which had been assigned to him by the venerable man, the provost of the cell ^b, it happened that he suddenly fell ill. And when many were going to visit him, as the custom ed. mos or moris. is, and I myself went more frequently, it happened on a certain night, the solemnities of the vigils having been completed (for such is the custom in the same holy church, that in winter time the night watch and the morning office are celebrated separately, a small interval being made, by the Lord's assistance): in that interval of time ed. temporis. , then, I went to see him, and entering the cell in which he himself was lying on his bed, I found all who were present so overcome with slumber that none of them was awakened at my entrance; and the light which had been kindled there I found extinguished. I at once admonished them all, lying before him, to rise, and commanded that the light which had been extinguished should be kindled anew; and the light being soon brought I asked the aforesaid Augustus how he was. And he said: Truly, as far as pertains to the hope of the present life, I confess that all the limbs of my body are already so loosened, that no strength at all remains in my limbs cod. artus mei remanserint. . But as far as pertains to the hope of eternal life, I rejoice not only that I have hope, but I confess also that I have seen the very author of eternal life, the Lord Jesus Christ, with bands of angels and countless multitudes of all the saints.

[2] refreshed by a vision of Jesus Christ and of the angels And when I had heard these things, at once turned to stupor I trembled violently, and I begged him to narrate to me one by one all the things he had seen. To this he said: I call to witness the Lord of heaven and earth that I report to you no phantasmal vision; but that you may the more believe, I confess to you also that I have by no means slept this night. And when he had said this, he began to speak thus: I was in a pleasant place, where there were many fragrant flowers, most verdant herbs, roses and lilies cod. liliæ. , and many crowns of cod. et. gems and gold, countless curtains of pure silk, and a delicate air with a breezy coolness refreshing all things by its breath. There too I saw countless seats placed to the right and left, but in the middle a seat cod. sedis. placed much higher stood forth; for there stood by countless boys, all adorned and beautiful, preparing tables and an exceptional banquet: not from any kind of cattle, but only from fowls cod. first altilia, corrected altiliis. was all the abundance of dishes being prepared; and everything that was being prepared was white as snow, and they were awaiting the coming of their lord the king. Then thereupon I, unworthy, thinking that it would be worth my while if I should hear more fully from his report the miracle of so great a thing, say to him: Tell me, I beseech you: while what you narrate was being prepared, what were you doing? And he replied: I was kissing the feet of all; and they were saying: Blessed be God, who has brought you here well. But while they were saying this, and preparing all the service, there suddenly arrived a huge multitude of men in white, all adorned with gold and precious stones and wreathed with glowing crowns, and one line of that multitude walked on the right, the other on the left side, and thus hastening on either side they displayed ineffable homage to their king. And in the midst of them came a man most splendid and exceedingly beautiful, comely in form, glorious in aspect, taller in stature than all, brighter than the sun, whiter than snow. And when they had come to the prepared seats, that more beautiful man sat in the more eminent place, and the others, falling down and adoring him, sat back cod. residerunt. in their seats. Then at once he blessed all; and they adored once and a second and a third time. Then the preparation of the dishes was set before them. When they had begun to feast, that comely man who sat on high said to those who stood around: Is any rustic here? And they replied: He is present, Lord. Then at last he said: Let him be presented to my sight. Now I was standing afar off, and gazing, and beholding: and when I had been presented to his gaze, I began to tremble violently. But he said to me: Do not fear, son. Pass behind my shoulder, and stand here. And he added: Do not fear. Know that I will be your protector. Nothing shall ever be wanting to you. I will always feed you, I will always clothe you, I will protect you at all times, and I will never forsake you. And at once he commanded that food and drink from the same banquet, such as I had never seen, be given to me: which receiving, I partook of with all gladness; and truly I confess that I was so refreshed by the grace of that food that henceforth I would never desire any other food but that. Then, the banquet being finished, he said to me: Let this multitude walk another way also: you shall set out with me, that I may show you my vivariolum [so the cod. and edd.; but perhaps, as Tamayo and Flórez conjecture, viridariolum is to be read; for a little below (no. 3 after the middle) he says: he led me out into a most pleasant garden.] which I have. And again, the banquet being now completed, all fell down and adored him; and the king, blessing them likewise, permitted them to go away. As they were going away, they were dragging to his tribunal I know not what men, crying out and wailing with great howlings. When he had heard their voices, he said: Drag the wicked servants outside: they are not worthy to see my face. When he had said this, they were indeed dragged away so swiftly that I could not more fully see them or recognize them.

[3] and of the saints, And again inquiring I said: I ask you, son, to tell me whether you saw there any great one of those who were known to us in this age and have already been summoned and departed from this light? To this he said: The men whom I saw there were far different from these men whom we see now; for all are adorned with another form and another bearing. Then he added: But after they had dragged those men outside, that lord more beautiful than the rest rose from his seat and, taking my hand, led me out into a most pleasant garden, where there was a stream, in which there was water of a glassy colour, and alongside that stream many flowers and woods so the cod. of spices, fragrant cod. fraglantes, and so thereafter. and redolent with diverse odours of sweetness. And so coming along that stream we came as far as the place at which I now, lying on my bed, see you.

[4] he dies piously, and after his death appears in glory. These things the oft-mentioned boy reported to me, many being present. Wherefore I, unworthy and the first of all sinners, a levite of Christ, have chosen to write as he narrated, in other words, it may be, yet with the very same meanings. After this I took care to announce all that I had heard to the most holy man, my lord and abbot ^c. Having learned these things, he, as is always his custom, filled with the bowels of piety, hastened very quickly to the same Augustus, and eagerly desiring to hear from his mouth what he had narrated a while before, he asked what he had seen; and the same Augustus, repeating nonetheless what he had said before, made it known to his sacred ears. Then to a certain kindly and most blessed levite and to all the brothers questioning him, he repeated what he had said a little before. For soon his spirit began to burn with the desire of receiving penance. Which cod. qui. having been at once received, when I had gone away and hastened for the sake of prayer to the basilica of St. Mary ever Virgin, which is distant five miles from the city of Emereta cod. Emerentisi. ^d, which basilica also the people to this day call St. Quintilina cod. Quintisinam. ^e, returning thence when the day was already drawing to evening, I found him dead; and since it was now evening, he was by no means buried that day. But the following night, while that little body lay unburied in the little cell in which he had died, at dead of night the same Augustus called another little boy of his own age cod. et quævum. , named Quintilian, from outside, by name, with a loud voice. Upon whose voice being heard and recognized, a certain simple and truthful boy, named Veranianus, at once rose, and going outside merited to see Augustus himself standing in white. But, terrified with fear, he did not presume to approach nearer to him; he testified with an oath that he had seen his face in snowy brightness. On the next day his little body was according to custom consigned to burial in the basilica of the most holy virgin, my lady Eulalia.

ANNOTATED.

in the episcopal presence, they ought to be instructed by the provost set over them Aguirre, vol. III, p. 152; Mansi, vol. VIII, p. 784. . And the Fourth Council of Toledo in the year 633, canon 24: Every age from adolescence is prone to evil: for nothing is more uncertain than the life of adolescents. For this reason it was necessary to decree that if any in the clergy are of the age of puberty (others: not of the age of puberty) or adolescents, all should dwell together in one chamber of the atrium, so that they may spend the years of slippery age not in wantonness but in ecclesiastical disciplines, assigned to a most approved elder, whom they may have as master of doctrine and witness of life Aguirre, vol. III, p. 371; Mansi, vol. IX, p. 626. . Hence you see of how ancient an institution are the seminaries of clerics.

CHAPTER II.

A monk of the Caulinian monastery near Mérida, when close to death, is converted to the Lord from a drunkard and thief.

HERE BEGINS THE DEATH OF A CERTAIN CAULIAN MONK.

A Caulian monk, given to gluttony and drunkenness, There were very many fit men a great many years before us ed. non. , by the divine clemency, mercifully being so the cod. in the province of Lusitania, who report a miracle of our Saviour performed while on the mount ed. monasterio. whose name is Coloniana ed. Cauliana. ^a, which, situated not far from the city of Emerita, is distant about eight miles, the most reverend man of pious memory Renovatus was abbot, who afterwards also became the wonderful pontiff of the city of Emereta ^b, and who with sagacious solicitude, as a man perspicacious and of exceedingly keen wit and most vigorous in all discipline and the fear of God, assiduously urged on all the monks dwelling there towards the heavenly fatherland by good conduct and examples of holy work; and while the whole flock followed the shepherd going before on the narrow paths and heavenly trails, the ravenous wolf strove with all his effort to tear one little sheep from him with his biting mouth: in this way namely, that while the whole assembly of the congregation persisted in the praises of God and lived on the regular path in the fear of the Lord, a certain monk, departing from their most holy custom, applying himself inestimably to gluttony and drunkenness, handed himself over to perdition. Then, declining to a greater destruction, he began to steal whatever he could find. When the aforesaid man of God frequently admonished him gently, and could not easily restrain him, he strove again ed. iterum iterumque to rebuke him with verbal reproofs. But when not even thus did he cease from the alluring delight of voracity and the intention of theft and rapacity, he ordered him to be beaten with scourges, afflicted with fasts and handed over to the workhouse-prisons ^c. But he nonetheless persisting in his former crimes, not only because he by no means ceased from shameful deeds, but polluting ed. pollicens. himself daily, hastened more and more to be consigned to the caverns of Avernus and Tartarus. And when he saw him so far proceeding on the way of his ed. adds pessimæ. intention, that neither when reproved so many times ed. viribus. nor beaten so often had he been willing to amend, touched inwardly with grief of heart he let him go according to the desires of his heart, and commanded those who presided over the storerooms of the monastery that at whatever hour he wished to enter, whatever best things, whatever sweet things he might find in the cellars, no one should forbid him to eat or drink even to vomiting; even if he wished according to his custom to carry something off and hide ed. abscindere. it, he should have free power, so that it might be more fully discerned, after he had satisfied his throat and belly, what he would then do. He, of course, finding ed. aperiens. the bolts unfastened in accordance with the order, secretly entered the rich cod. operi. cellars of the monastery, a most opulent one, as it is said, surrounded however by guards at a distance on every side, watching with cunning dissimulation, he not knowing it, and waiting to see what he would do; whatever sweet or pleasant things he found to eat and drink, he kept devouring and drinking here and there until, his mind lost, he could scarcely walk. After this, furtively stealing diverse dishes, he carried off also wine-vessels, which by their usual name are called gillones ed. guillones. ^d or flascones ^e, and hid them in the garden adjoining the monastery among leafy shrubs or dense reed-beds in a most hidden place. Then thereupon, already gorged with excessive food and sated cod. sautiatus. with the drunkenness cod. tumulentiaque. of cups, he would lay out a couch for himself; and setting beside him what he had stolen, although he no longer took delight and belched cod. ruptuaret. from his overly laden belly, he yet desired still to eat and drink. But since, his belly being exceedingly weighed down, he languished rather than ate, sleep at once overtaking him he would fall asleep. Then thereupon dogs coming would eat whatever he had carried. And so the guards, watching from opposite, would bring back to the cellars the little vessels which he had brought away, while he slept. While these things were being carried on through long spaces of time, and no one any longer believed that he would ever be amended, the good shepherd and saviour drew him, taken out from here ed. hoc exemplo. , from the mouth of the lion.

[6] [he is wonderfully converted and dies in holiness; after many years his body is found intact.] For it happened that on a certain day, according to his usual custom, he came out of the cellar drunk cod. tumulentus. at earliest dawn: and when the little boys saw him drunk, who were studying letters in the schools under the discipline of tutors ^f, they at once cried out with this voice: Amend yourself, cruel man, amend yourself at last. Consider the terrible judgment of God. Consider the dreadful sentence of his fearful examination. Consider here the awful and horrible avenging severity of his judgment. Consider also the years of your age, and so at last change your ways for the better and, if only one day before your death, correct your life, for what you do is not permitted to be done by us children, how much less by you who are seen to be already full of years. When he heard this, he blushed, covered with exceeding shame, and was at once pricked in heart, and weeping with great wailing, raising his eyes with tears to heaven he said: Lord Jesus Christ, saviour of souls, who do not will the death of sinners, but that they turn back from iniquity and live, I pray you to correct me and take away this ignominious reproach from my face; or at least, if it pleases you, take me now out of this miserable life, that I may no more hear reproach before my face ed. impr. faciei meæ. . The divine piety did not delay at once to hear him, but, striking him there and then in the same place with pain, made him burn with the force of fevers. Assuredly the change of the right hand of the Most High changed him for the better to such an extent that, abhorring all carnal delights, with burning spirit he soon sought the remedy of penance, and eagerly desired, namely, the sacrament of the Lord's body and blood. But when the aforesaid kindly father thought that he was demanding this with a frenzied or profane mind, he delayed to give him full penance, but imparted only the grace of the viaticum; and for three days and as many nights he made satisfaction by tears and wonderful confession. On the third day after this, about to depart from the body and bidding farewell to all the brothers, he spoke thus: Know that all my offences have been forgiven me: and behold before the doors the most holy apostles Peter and Paul, and also blessed Lawrence, archdeacon and martyr, with a countless crowd of men in white, are awaiting me, with whom I must go to the Lord. And saying this he departed from the body. His little body was according to custom given over to burial. But after fifteen years or more, the memorable river Ana ^g, swelling exceedingly and overflowing the banks of its channel, spread its streams of water widely and made many ruins of buildings through the hamlets near its shore; likewise also it overturned the cells of the Caulian monastery. When the monks wished to restore these, it happened that while they were building the foundations in the little cell in which the aforesaid man lay, they opened his very sepulchre; but at once a nectar-like odour burst forth from it; and he himself was found whole and incorrupt, as if he had been buried at that same hour, so that neither his garments nor his hair were seen to have been corrupted in any part.

ANNOTATED.

of a certain image of the Virgin Mother of God received by King Roderic after his disaster in the Caulian monastery and brought by him to Mount Seanus. This charter Bernardo de Brito affirmed to have been found by him in the archive of Alcobaça and inserted in his Monarchia Lusitana, bk. VII, ch. 4 [Thence cited in Th. Tamayo in a note on this place (P. L. vol. LXXX, p. 123, note a).] , but this authority is too suspect for faith to be given to it when other documents are lacking. That the Caulian monastery was abandoned by the monks after the invasion of the Moors and soon fell into ruin may readily be conjectured. Whether Benedictines or Hermits of St. Augustine inhabited it, the writers of each of these Orders have disputed with vain effort Cf. Benedictina Lusitana, l. c.; Torelli, Secoli Agostiniani, vol. II, p. 420. ; for arguments of any strength are available to neither.

b. Cf. below, n. 50.

Our author seems to have had before his eyes Prudentius singing in the hymn on St. Eulalia:

Now the place of her tomb is Emerita,

The bright colony of Vettonia,

Which the memorable river Ana

Passes by…

Today that river, retaining its ancient name, Jana to the Arabs, with the Arabic word ouad prefixed, which means river (whence also the one anciently named Bætis was long ago called by the Arabs Ouad-al-québir or Guadalquivir, that is, the great river) Freytag, Lexicon Arabico-latinum, vol. IV, p. 452. , is called the Guadiana.

CHAPTER III.

Nunctus, an African abbot, coming to Mérida, was killed by wicked men, who were soon seized by a demon.

HERE BEGINS THE DEATH OF A CERTAIN ABBOT NANCTUS.

St. Nunctus the abbot, notable for modesty, While we are eager to narrate recent things, we had omitted the ancient deeds of the elders. Very many narrate, then, that many courses of years ago, in the times of Leuvigild ^b, king of the Visegoths, there came from the regions of Africa into the province of Lusitania an abbot by name Nanctus ed. Nunctum. : who after he had lived omits cod. there for some time, eagerly approached the basilica of the most holy virgin Eulalia, in which her most sacred little body rests (basilicam-requiescit) omits cod. . But, as it is said, he shunned in all things the sight of women as a viper's bite, not because he despised the sex, but because from a contemplated appearance he feared to run into the vice of temptation: to such a degree indeed that in whatever place he went, he ordered one monk to walk at a distance before him and another behind him, lest a woman should on any occasion see him. He, as we said above, when he had come to the basilica of St. Eulalia, virgin and martyr, begged with many prayers the most reverend man Redemptus the deacon ^c, who presided there, that when he went forth from the cell into the church for prayer at night-time, he should so post guards that no woman at all should see him. But while he had delayed some days in the same holy church, a certain most noble and most holy widow, named Eusebia, desired with all desire to see him; but he by no means allowed himself to be seen by her. And when various persons frequently asked him that he should deign to see her, and he in no way consented, she, having formed a plan, begged the aforesaid Redemptus the deacon that when lauds were finished, as he returned from the church to the little cell, she standing in a hidden place, he should order a very bright light of tapers to be made around the same most holy man, so that she might merit to see him at least from afar: which was done. But when, without his knowing, the sight of a woman reached him, he prostrated himself on the ground with a great groan, as if he had been severely struck by the blow of a great stone. Soon also he began to say to the deacon himself: May the Lord pardon you, brother; what is this that you have done? After this finally he at once went forth from there and with a few brothers came to desert places, and there built for himself a most mean dwelling.

[8] he is killed by rustics, who, then seized by demons, wretchedly perish. But while he shone there with frequent miracles, his fame running abroad came to the hearing of Prince Leuvigild. He, though he was an Arian, yet, that he might commend himself to the Lord by his prayers, sent to the same man by written authority concerning a certain place of the princes (pr. l.) ed. præcipuo loco fisci. , that he might have from there food or clothing with his brothers; which the man of God altogether refused to accept. But when he declined, and he who had come to him sent by the king said: You ought not to despise the offering of your son, at length, compelled by him, he accepted it. But after some days, the men dwelling in the same place began to say to one another: Let us go and see what sort of man this lord of ours is to whom we have been given. And when they had gone, and had seen him sordid in clothing, unkempt in hair ed. habituque. , despising him they said to one another: It is better for us to die than to serve such a lord. And then after some days, when the holy man of God had gone forth into the woods to pasture a few sheep, finding him alone, they broke his neck and killed him. And after no long interval of time the murderers themselves were seized and presented in chains to King Leovegild; to whom it was said that they were the ones who had slain the servant of God. But he, although he was not of the right faith, yet rightly promulgated sentence, saying: Loose them from their chains and let them go, and if they have truly killed a servant of God, let God avenge the death of his servant without vengeance of ours. But when this was said, and they were loosed, at once demons seized cod. corruperunt. them and afflicted them for many days, until by a cruel death they shook out their souls from their bodies. Thanks be to God.

ANNOTATED.

CHAPTER IV.

Paul the physician, a Greek by nation, becomes bishop of Mérida and heals a woman labouring in childbirth.

HERE BEGINS THE DEATH OR MIRACLES OF THE HOLY BISHOPS OF EMERETA.

Prologue. Omitting the decked-out pomps of words and passing over cod. premittentes. the garrulous foam of eloquence, we now also narrate simply cod. simplicibus. and truthfully the things that are in every way true. For if we should wish to wrap in obscure speech what are known to be clearer than the light, we do not instruct but weary the minds of our hearers; because when the understanding of the many unskilled grasps less, the hearing is wearied. And therefore, as we promised above ^a, we make known simply the miracles done of old by the holy fathers, as they have been brought to us by the report of many.

[9] Paul, a Greek physician, is consecrated bishop of Mérida. Many report that a holy man named Paul, a Greek by nation, a physician by profession, came from the regions of the East into the city of Emereta ^b. When he, dwelling there for a long time, was strong in sanctity and many virtues, and surpassed all in humility and kindness, it was granted him by the Lord to merit the pontificate of the aforesaid city ^c. But when by God's choosing he was ordained bishop, God at once took away all the storms of disturbance which had troubled the same church in the time of his predecessor ^d, and granted exceeding tranquillity to his church by his prayers.

[10] A matron, brought to extremity on account of a fetus dead in the womb, While he, by God's favour, presided peacefully and kindly over all his citizens and displayed to the affections of all the sweet-flowing affection ed. effectum. of his sacred breast, it happened that the matron cod. matrona. of a certain chief man of the city, a most noble man of senatorial family, fell ill, who herself also, born of illustrious lineage cod. stigmate. , drew a noble descent; who when recently omits cod. married had conceived in the womb, the infant itself was crushed in the belly. When many physicians applied diverse things to her, and she felt no remedy of healing, but, placed in grave danger, drew daily nearer to death, her aforesaid illustrious husband, because nothing was dearer to him than the wife he had newly obtained by the grace of marriage, despising all the physicians, in hope of recovering her health ran to the same holy man, and casting himself at his feet with tears besought him that, since he was a servant of God, he would pray the Lord by his prayers for the health of his matron, or at least, since he was a physician, would not think it unworthy to give the sick woman with his own hand the favour of healing. But the man of the Lord at once replied, saying: What you urge is not permitted me to do, because, though unworthy, I am a priest of the Lord, and I offer sacrifice with my hands to the Lord; and therefore I cannot fulfil what you say, lest I afterwards bring polluted hands to the sacred altars and soon incur the fury of the divine piety. And he added: We will go, he said, in the name of the Lord. We will visit cod. visitamus, and below damus. her, and we will give physicians of the church, who may apply medicine to her, and as far as we know we will show cod. ostendimus. how they should perform the cure. But we cannot do it with our own hand. But he, knowing that the cure of no cod. nulli. other physician would avail and that his wife was already nearly dead, began with great weeping earnestly to demand that he should send no one thither cod. illic. , but should go himself and apply what he knew with his own hand. But when he did not assent nor at all consent, all the brothers present themselves also asked him with tears to go. And he said: I know that the mercy of the Lord is great, and I believe that, when I have been there, he will both restore her former health to the sick woman cod. infirmo. , and at once grant me pardon on account of my presumption; but wicked men this cause for me

will afterwards bring up, I have no doubt at all cod. dubitabo. . When all his brothers replied to him: None of us will say anything on that account; but go, Lord, and with all speed do that which will profit your reward ^e.

[11] he frees from danger, and from her and her husband receives their many riches. At length, compelled by their prayers, he promised to set out, on condition, however, that he should first inquire the will of the Lord, lest going rashly he should easily do what ed. pro quo. he, punished by God's judgment, would return to pardon only with difficulty ^f. For at once he sought the basilica of the most holy virgin Eulalia, and there, prostrate on the pavement, lay through the whole day, and, persevering unwearied in prayer, continued through the following night also. He was soon admonished there by a divine oracle, and at once rising went without hesitation to the house of the sick woman and hurried quickly, poured out a prayer, laid his hands in the name of the Lord upon the sick woman, in the hope of God with wonderful fineness made a most fine incision cod. incisione subtilissima. with a fine iron instrument, and drew out the infant itself, already putrid, limb by limb and piece by piece [g]; and the woman, already almost dead and half-alive, by God's assistance he immediately restored sound to her husband. And he commanded her not to know a husband further: for at whatever time she should know ed. agnosceret. virile intercourse, worse perils would soon be upon cod. ad futuri. her. But they nonetheless, casting themselves at his feet, gave thanks, and promised that they would in all things observe all that the man of God had commanded, calling down upon themselves from the Lord that, if they did not keep it, worse things would afterwards come to them. And there arose in that house inestimable gladness and immense joy; and all, crying out in the praises of God, praying and leaping for joy, said that the Lord had truly sent his angel who had taken pity on them cod. illi. . Then thereupon they made such a written deed of their property that from the present the holy man should receive half of all that they had, and the other half after their death should pass whole and untouched into his possession: for there was so great an abundance of property in them that no one of the senators in the province of Lusitania was found richer than they. This he altogether refused and declined and was unwilling to accept; but as they besought and offered with exceeding importunity, thus at length he was compelled to accept it, and accepting it he ordered it to serve not so much his own uses as the necessities of the needy. And those by whom it was offered to him, persevering in chastity with the fear of God, after no long interval of time were taken by divine vocation to the heavenly fatherland. They being dead, the most holy Bishop Paul merited cod. promeruerit. to receive their whole patrimony; and he who had come as a stranger and having nothing became more powerful than all the powerful, to such an extent that the whole wealth of the church was reckoned cod. putarentur. as nothing in comparison with his goods.

ANNOTATED.

CHAPTER V.

Fidelis, a Greek by nation, son of the sister of Paul bishop of Mérida, is put in place of his uncle in the episcopate while the latter is living.

[The boy Fidelis, coming from the East to Mérida, is recognized and kept by St. Paul his uncle.] Then, when for very many years he enjoyed a happy time cod. tempora. happily with his people, and, living joyfully to God, flourished always full of virtues, it happened on a certain day that Greek merchants came in ships from the Eastern parts ed. Orientis partibus. from the region from which he himself had originated, and reached the shores of Spain; and when they had come to the city of Emereta, according to custom they presented themselves before the bishop ^a. When they had been kindly received by him and, going out from his atrium ^b, had returned to the house in which they were lodging, on the following day they sent him a small gift in thanksgiving, a boy named Fidelis ^c bringing it, who had come with them from their region, hired for the sake of earning wages. And when he had been presented to his gaze, and the holy man had gratefully accepted what he had brought, sent with a grateful spirit, he began to ask him one thing after another, by what name he was called, of what province or of what city he was. When therefore he told his name and named his city, seeing a youth of good character, he asked him everything in order and inquired the names of his parents. And he accordingly, following the questioning, simply made known his fatherland, city, quarter, and the names of his parents. As he said this, he recognized the name of his sister; and at once leaping from his seat in the sight of all, he fell upon his embrace. For his bowels had been moved over him, and rushing upon his neck and kissing him for a very long time, he wept abundantly for joy. At once he ordered the aforesaid merchants to be summoned; and he said to them: Grant me this boy, and ask from me whatever you wish. But they replied: This we can by no means do, because he is freeborn and we received him from his parents, hired for our assistance; without him we can by no means go back to his parents, nor shall we have leave to see their faces any more, if we should leave him behind in so distant a region. He on the contrary said: Be it known to you that if you do not leave him to me, you will by no means return to your fatherland. But take from me plentiful money, and go away, proceeding securely in peace. Hearing this, and no longer able to resist so great a power, they say to him: Tell us, lord, what is the cause that you deign to love with so great a love a man unknown to you? And he replied that he was his near relative and very close to him by kinship. And he added: Go away in the name of the Lord without any hesitation, announcing to my sister that I have kept her son with me for the consolation of my captivity. Sending various gifts by them to his sister, he bestowed many gifts also on the sailors themselves; and thus enriched by his gifts they returned to their fatherland with great joy.

[13] [By the same man he is ordained deacon and afterwards consecrated bishop. St. Paul, withdrawing into solitude, dies piously.] When they had gone back, he at once ordered the aforesaid youth to be tonsured and offered him to serve almighty God, and like another Samuel in the temple of the Lord he vigorously instructed him by days and nights, so that within the course of a few years he taught him most perfectly the whole ecclesiastical office and the whole library of the divine scriptures. Then, advancing him through the several grades, he ordained him deacon. He, soon made a dwelling of the Holy Spirit, was so irradiated with all virtues that in sanctity, charity, patience and humility he surpassed the whole clergy. So indeed did he show himself dear and affable to God and men that they thought him one of the number cod. en numerum. of the angels. Meanwhile, while for very many years he served the Lord blamelessly, and served his aforesaid foster-father with sweet obedience in all things and pleasantly delighted his old age without any offence, the same aforesaid most blessed father, many courses of years now having passed and verging at decrepit age into senility, chose him as his successor, and soon even ordained him in his place while he himself was living, and instituted him heir of all his goods: decreeing thus indeed by testamentary sanction that if the clergy of Emereta wished to have him as pontiff, he should leave all the property which he had conferred upon him, after his death, to the aforesaid church; but if otherwise, he should have free discretion to decree or judge whatever he wished concerning the aforesaid property ^d. This decree assuredly the holy man promulgated, the Holy Spirit revealing it to him, foreknowing by the grace of prophecy that there would not be wanting for the same man the envies of many [after this word there is read in the codex the verb obsistere, but with a little line drawn beneath which signifies that it is to be deleted.] wicked men, who would afterwards bark at him on every side in the manner of dogs and, kindled by the torches of envy, would bitingly tear at him. Meanwhile, when under God's auspices he had established him as prelate, he desired so to stand by him and serve him as he had been accustomed to minister in the time of his diaconate, so that, taking off his chasuble, attending before him in the manner of a minister, he would discharge all service. But he forbade him to do this, and admonished him thenceforward to hold cod. tenere. constantly the authority of his pontificate, and ordered him rather to take care of his brothers. But the most holy old man himself, soon leaving the atrium and all the privileges of his honour, betook himself to the basilica of St. Eulalia into a most mean little cell. While he, placed there for some time, by

the storms of this world released and established in much quiet, lying in sackcloth and ashes, was praying the Lord for the sins of the whole world, he departed from the body.

ANNOTATED.

CHAPTER VI.

Bishop Fidelis leaves his possessions to the church of St. Eulalia, frees the clergy from the danger of a collapse.

Some at first oppose St. Fidelis, but are soon reconciled. After his departure, certain pestilent men, in accordance with what the man of God had foretold, began to mutter with malignant words against the most blessed Fidelis, so as to drive him on some occasion or other from the place in which he had been established. When he had weighed this, and wished to separate himself together with his property from their persecution, they, having learned that [if] omits cod. he, withdrawing his estates from the right of the church, should separate himself from them, nothing at all would remain to them, more unwilling though it was than of their own accord, prostrated themselves omits cod. at his feet and with many prayers demanded that he not desert them. He, not altogether resisting, gave them his assent, that he should both bear the care of governance and afterwards leave his whole patrimony to the church. Which was so done; so that ed. et ex. at that time that church was enriched to such a degree that no church in the territories of Spain was more opulent than it. And thus, the Lord cooperating, the pure and sincere love of all was confirmed towards him, to such an extent that all, burning with one and the same mind with the love of immense charity, glowed towards him with an immense fire of holy ardour, and, made one heart and lip with him, in no way at all differed from their mutual love through any intervening division.

[15] The episcopal palace collapses, no one being hurt. Since we have mentioned the name of so great a prophet, it seems to us worth while to hand on clearly cod. prespicuum. to memory some small part of his many miracles by which he frequently shone forth. On a certain Sunday, then, while he was sitting in the atrium with many sons of the church, as is the custom, the archdeacon with all the clergy, coming from the church in albs, stood before him. And soon he, rising, the deacons according to custom bearing thuribles and going before him, proceeded with all who were present to the church, in order that at God's command they might celebrate the solemnities of the Mass. But when all with him had gone forth from the atrium a little way, about ten steps outside, immediately from the lowest foundations the whole structure of the most ample atrium suddenly fell, and at God's command it crushed no one there. From which it must be weighed of what merit this man was, who so obtained with God by his prayers that power was not given to the ancient enemy cod. antiqui hostis. to accomplish the ruin of so great a structure before he himself, by God's mercy, had saved all, led outside, in unbroken number. But that in so great a danger no one perished, let no one doubt was furnished especially by the merits of the most holy virgin Eulalia. And when, inquiring anxiously, he had found that no one had perished, he in no way at all saddened his spirit, but rather gave thanks to the Lord, joyfully offered sacrifice to God, and spent that very day delightfully for the Lord with all his people.

[16] [Fidelis splendidly restores the demolished palace, and likewise the basilica of St. Eulalia.] And after no long interval of time he restored the structure of the demolished seat and by God's help completed it more beautifully. In this way, indeed, raising the extent of that same building far and wide with lofty roofs, and suspending precious halls on ornaments of columns, and clothing the whole pavement and all the walls with gleaming marbles cod. parietibus. , he wove above it wondrous ceilings. Then thereupon, restoring for the better in a wonderful cod. mira. manner cod. modum. of arrangement the basilica of the most holy virgin Eulalia ^a, he carried up on the very most sacred temple lofty pinnacles of towers to a high summit ^b. For this blessed man, while placed in the body, is reported to have been seen frequently with cod. eum cum. bands of saints, standing and singing psalms in the choir of the church; and many other things are narrated which we have ceased to write on account of their length, lest they cause tedium to readers.

CHAPTER VII.

Bishop Fidelis seen to take part in the choirs of the saints.

Fidelis, seen once to take part in the choirs of the saints On a certain day he sent a boy of his household to the place whose name is Caspiana, which is distant from the city of Emereta sixteen miles, and ordered him to return with all haste. When he had gone and it did not turn out for him to return the same day, he remained there. To him, already asleep at the very beginning of the night, it seemed that the cocks had crowed, and at once awakening he mounted his horse, and hastening quickly came before the middle of the night before the gate of that city which is called the Gate of the Bridge. While he sat there a very long time and perceived that he had risen before the suitable hour, and that, although he had shouted loudly, no one was opening the gate for him, it seemed good to him to give his horse a little fodder of grass, until perhaps someone should unbar the gate. And behold, suddenly at the hour omits cod. of dead of night, raising his eyes he saw from afar a globe of fire proceeding from the church of St. Faustus ^a, which is about a mile distant from the city, and coming to the basilica of St. Lucretia cod. Leucricie. ^b. While he silently contemplated what this might be, without delay, behold a multitude of saints, before whom that light went, coming across the bridge, had reached as far as the gate, with whom walked also the most holy Fidelis. But when they came to the gate, the aforesaid boy, seeing the increased ranks of men in white, and beholding also St. Fidelis himself clothed in a snowy mantle hastening in their midst, was stunned, and terrified and trembling, from fear became as one dead. For them the bars of the gates were unfastened by divine power, and they soon entered the city. When they had entered, he, rising and wishing to enter after them, was by no means able, because he found the gate closed as before. When at earliest dawn, it being opened, he had reached the atrium, the holy man at once asked him at what hour he had come forth from the aforesaid place. He related to him both the hour at which he had risen and the delay which he had made at the gate. When the man of God asked him whether he had not seen something, and he confessed that he had seen, then he admonished him that as long as the holy man himself should be in the body, he should report it to no one, lest it should pertain to his fearful danger.

[18] [and again; he foretells death to one who had inconsiderately divulged the matter.] On another occasion also, likewise, a certain religious saw him on a certain night going forth from the church of St. Eulalia with a multitude of saints and going through the basilicas of the martyrs; but acting incautiously he at once told it to many. Finally, coming to the man of God, he reported to him what he had seen. He said to him: This that you have seen, have you already told it to anyone or not? He at once answering simply professed that he had told. To this he said: May God pardon you, brother; you have not done rightly. I know indeed that it will not be reckoned to you as a fault in the future judgment. Meanwhile go, communicate (v.c.) cod. jube communicare. , and give us the kiss of farewell, because you are about to go. Yet also set your house in order with all haste; or if you desire the remedy of penance, receive it. He, soon having received penance and set his house in order, bidding farewell to all, the following night departed from the body.

ANNOTATED.

indeed suffered in the year 859 Cf. Act. SS., vol. II March, p. 411. . There would certainly have been no room for hesitation for Tamayo, if he had noticed that in Usuard, at the 23rd day of November, there is recorded the memory: In the city of Mérida, of St. Lucretia, virgin, who in the Roman Martyrology is said to have suffered under Diocletian.

CHAPTER VIII.

Bishop Fidelis, admonished by a vision, after distributing his goods among the poor, departs to the Lord.

By a wonderful vision the death of the holy bishop is foretold: To a certain religious man who again was hastening intently to the ecclesiastical office, on a certain night, while in his bed he lay overcome with slumber in the silence omits cod. of dead of night, it seemed that they had given the signal for matins. He at once rising with all haste ran cod. occurrit. to the church, lest the time of the sacred office should pass him by, and hurrying with a most rapid course he arrived there panting. But when he entered the church of St. Mary, which is still called Holy Jerusalem ^a, he heard the voices of those singing in a wonderful mode of melody, and looking towards the choir he saw a multitude of saints standing. He, shaken with exceeding fear and turned to trembling, silently betook himself into a corner of the basilica, and quietly contemplating, anxiously listening, he heard the whole office completed by them in the accustomed order. This being finished, still a little before cockcrow, they came with lauds from the church (a. e.) cod. ecclesiam. of St. Mary to the little basilica of St. John, in which the baptistery is, which is very close to the aforesaid basilica, only a wall being interposed, and both are covered by the covering of one roof ^b. And lauds being finished they began to say to one another: Behold, directly it is the hour at which the signal must be given: for this reason it is necessary first that we should set in order that for which we have been sent. When they had said this, there appeared in their sight Ethiopians cod. eziopes. , foul and exceedingly terrible, whose stature seemed gigantic, their blackness most exceedingly foul, so that from their very grim gaze (t. i.) cod. turbo introitu. and exceedingly dark countenance it was given to one openly beholding to understand that they themselves were beyond doubt ministers of Tartarus, and who also carried very sharp swords in their hands. To these the saints soon said: Going with all speed to the atrium, enter the cell in which the holy Bishop Fidelis lies, and strike him with a grave wound in the body, that his soul, going forth as quickly as possible from its bodily chain, may be able to come with us to our Lord Jesus Christ, to the crown prepared for it. They at once, obeying the orders, walked off, but without striking him at all they returned, saying: We can by no means enter his cell, because he does not sleep, but lies prostrate on the ground and prays. Moreover the very cell is fragrant with so very sweet an odour of incense that the splendour of so great a fragrance of incense, which has been offered by him to the Lord, does not at all allow us to enter there. To them they again gave the command, saying: Go and strike him, because the Lord's order must be fulfilled. And when they had gone and could not enter, returning again they said: His prayer altogether prevents us from entering. To them they said: Prayer ceases when the summons comes. But go and fulfil the precept of the Lord; what has once been given can by no means be transgressed. But when they had gone the third time, by the Lord's permission they entered; and they struck him, namely, with so strong and cruel a hand that the voice which he uttered with grievous pain and at the same time with a groan, this religious who stood in the church clearly heard.

[20] for which he prepares himself by bestowing many alms. When day had dawned he approached the holy bishop, and made known to him all that he had seen and what he had also heard. He said to him: I know, my son, I know and it is by no means hidden from me. When he had said this, and had felt himself entirely and suddenly dissolving, his limbs already failing with the impending sickness, he ordered himself to be carried to the basilica of the most holy virgin Eulalia. There first of all he wept for his offences with many satisfactions of tears; then he bestowed much bounty on many captives and needy; last of all, returning the written bonds, he remitted the debts of all. But when he had returned them to all, the bond of a certain widow had remained, which had not yet been returned, which that widow was waiting for him to return to her, but as a poor little woman, because of the density of the crowd with which he was surrounded, she had no means of approaching. When she came on each day, and could by no means find a place, and was anxious with an exceedingly saddened mind, and accomplishing nothing, afflicted with grief, went back to her lodging, on a certain night the most holy martyrs Cyprian and Lawrence stood by her in a vision, saying: Do you know why you find no place? And she replied: I do not know. And they said: Why do you frequently run together to the other basilicas of the other martyrs our brothers, and disdain to come to us? She at once rising ran ed. cucurrit. to their basilicas, poured out prayer with tears, implored pardon for the negligence of past time. And from there she soon returned to the basilica of St. Eulalia, with wonderful speed found a place, received her bond without difficulty, gave immense thanks to God and his saints, through which she merited not only to find a place prepared for entering, but it was even so arranged by the saints of God that when she entered, the holy bishop, holding that very bond in his own hand, was waiting for her to whom he should restore it. And thus it came about that, he kindly returning it and she with joy receiving what she had long desired, a little later the holy man, the assemblies of saints going before and the angelic choirs waiting, departed rejoicing to the ethereal realms, and, joined with the heavenly phalanxes, merited at the command of the Lord Jesus to be gathered for ever with perpetual exultation in the starry mansions cod. mansionum. . And his little body, entrusted to one and the same sarcophagus beside the body of his most holy predecessor, was honourably entombed as if in one little bed.

ANNOTATED.

CHAPTER IX.

Masona, a Goth by nation, brought up in the church of St. Eulalia, succeeds Fidelis in the episcopate; he builds a guest-hospital and monasteries.

HERE BEGINS THE LIFE [OR] [omits cod.] ON THE VIRTUES OF ST. MASONA, BISHOP.

St. Masona succeeds St. Fidelis, To this aforesaid kindly man, departing to the heavenly fatherland, there was put in place by the providence of the divine piety a man no less in all virtues ed. adds gloria. , orthodox, whose name was Masona. Blessed, namely, to blessed, holy to holy, pious to pious, good to kindly, and shining with all gifts to one glowing with immense virtues, Masona succeeded Fidelis in the priestly order. For the predecessor being joined in the heavens to the star-bearing citizens, the sweetness of the manna ed. mansit or magni. of the successor cod. successores. and his notable merit soothed cod. linivit. the grief of all the citizens on earth, so that for all the grief at the death of so great a pontiff was not only dispelled, but also, after the likeness of the ancient fathers Elijah and Elisha of old, the doubled grace of the Paraclete Spirit of the prelate St. Fidelis, openly in the sight of all, seemed to have rested on the holy Bishop Masona; so that the people, their shepherd having been taken away, should not everywhere be wearied, afflicted with languor, but should rejoice with doubled joy, the divine mercy granting it, in that it both sent the one ahead to the heavens for their salvation, and received gladly on earth this man of exceptional virtue.

[22] a Goth by birth, illustrious for virtues: Then, the holy prelate Masona, sprung in this world from noble origin, but proved much nobler by the merits of his life; a Goth indeed by birth ^b, but of a mind most ready towards God, exceedingly devout and manfully grounded in the virtue of the Most High, adorned with holy morals, and made beautiful with a bearing of great comeliness, wrapped from his earliest age in the shining robe of charity and humility, strongly girded with the belt of faith, notably hedged around, namely, with prudence and justice, wonderfully adorned with the love of the supreme God and of neighbour; for beloved of God cod. Dei. and men, wonderful in age ed. erat. and glory, a lover of the brothers, praying much for the people, whose name, flashing with many miracles, passed through all the earth. In his times, accordingly, the Lord by his prayers drove far away the plague of diseases and the want of famine from the city of Emereta and all Lusitania, and by the merits of the most sacred virgin Eulalia thrust them further off, and deigned to impart so great a salvation and an abundance of all delights to the whole people that no one ever, though needy, seemed to lack ed. habere or avere. ^c anything or was wearied by any necessity, but the needy as well as the opulent abounded in all goods, and in a certain way, after the likeness of heavenly joy, the whole people on earth rejoiced together at the merit of so great a pontiff. Joy was in all, peace was with all, happiness was absent from none, perfect charity flourished in the hearts of all, tranquil gladness was strong in the senses of all; so indeed that, the most ancient enemy being vanquished and the old dragon overcome, no one was struck down by grief, no one afflicted by anguish, no one smitten with any terror or touched by any jealousy or envy, was shaken by the virulent goads of the crafty serpent; but all, filled with perfect charity, by God's assistance rejoicing in the grace of their pious father, undaunted, without fear or dread of anyone, persisted constantly in the praises of God. And not only in the inmost parts of all the faithful did his immense charity burn, but also he drew the minds of all Jews and gentiles to the grace of Christ by the wonderful affection of his sweetness. How great therefore and of what sort he was, our inertia cannot unfold in each detail; but though we pass over in silence the greatest things, let us at least mention the last of the greatest.

[23] [who builds monasteries, basilicas and a guest-hospital, exceptionally solicitous for the poor] Now the aforesaid man, before he was ordained bishop, is said to have lived with supreme diligence at the basilica of the most holy virgin Eulalia, and there blamelessly for many years to God

to have served. But after, by God's inspiration, resting in the mouth, eyes and mind of all, he was taken from there and ordained pontiff, at once in the opening of his episcopate he founded many monasteries, enriched them with great estates, built several basilicas with wonderful workmanship, and there consecrated many souls to God. Then he built a guest-hospital and enriched it with great patrimonies, and, attendants and physicians being appointed, he ordered them to serve the needs of strangers and the sick, and gave such a precept that the physicians, ceaselessly going round the circuit of the whole city, should bring to the guest-hospital, carrying them in their arms, whatever slave or free man, Christian or Jew, they should find sick, placing the same sick person there on straw of a little bed neatly prepared, preparing dainty and clean foods until with God they should restore to the sick man his former health. And although from the estates conferred on the guest-hospital an abundance of many delicacies was provided, it yet seemed too little to the holy man; but adding greater things to all these, he ordered the physicians to take care with sagacious solicitude that from all the gifts brought into the atrium by all the actuaries ed. sanctuariis. ^d from the whole patrimony of the church they should receive half, to bring to the same sick persons.

[24] and liberal, And if any of the citizens of the city or of the rustics from the countryside came to the atrium out of necessity, and asked the stewards for liquid, of wine, oil or honey, and presented a small vessel in which to carry it, and the holy man saw him, grateful as he always was in his gaze, with a joyful countenance he would at once order the little vessel itself to be broken, and that he should bring a larger. But how generous he was in the alms of the poor, it is reserved to God alone to know; yet let us narrate a certain small part of this also. So great was his care for the toilsome life of all the wretched, that at the basilica of the most holy Eulalia he gave to the deacon, a venerable man, by name Redemptus ^e, who presided there, two thousand solidi, from which, as soon as anyone came under the pressure of necessity, on making a bond, he might receive as many as he wished without any delay or difficulty, and provide for his straits ^f. Nor do I think it should be passed over in silence how lavish he was in gifts, since he, more abstinent of another's property, more generous with his own, excelled in magnanimity not of receiving but of giving: more eager indeed to give than to seek property, he had learned that the better fortune is that of giving rather than receiving. He bestowed many things, and took away nothing, and gave of his own accord to all; he gave many things, he bestowed very many, he enriched all with the benefits of his munificence, and was held great in munificence. All were increased by him with gifts and enriched with riches; and he showed himself bountiful in gifts, beyond what can be believed, not so much to brothers and friends as to the little slaves of the church themselves. So indeed were they enriched in his times that on the most sacred day of Easter, when he proceeded to the church, very many boys, clothing themselves in cloaks of pure silk, walked before him as before a king; and what in these times no one could do, no one presumed to do, clothed in garments of this kind ed. hujusmodi. they went before him rendering due homage.

[25] nor less notable for modesty and humility. But deservedly was the gift of so great a merit conferred on him by the almighty Lord, whose heart in so great an opulence and glory was never swollen nor puffed up by the joy of transitory prosperity. Indeed his humble spirit, founded on the most solid rock with immaculate conscience, with sincere thought and ignorant of craftiness, was humble in prosperity, and exceedingly strong in adversity; nor was he lifted up by prosperity ed. adds nec adversitate frangebatur. , by no loss or gain was his constancy changed. He was constant in all things, and most readily prepared against all, exceedingly patient and most firm in strength; constant in all adversities, he persevered undaunted in all straits, he changed his countenance neither for joy nor for grief; always one countenance of his, adorned with one cheerfulness, met all; always the same one countenance of his, nor was it ever changed by the variety of affairs. Pride, the enemy of all virtues, did not lift him up, but in all things he preserved sincere humility with the sincere and most sacred affection of his heart. And when by divine favour he was strong in such virtues, his good fame growing with a spreading report ed. adsparsit or affulsit. , and works of light being given by the true light, he shone so first in the cod., but corrected coruscaverunt. in many regions.

ANNOTATED.

CHAPTER X.

Leovigild, the Arian king of the Visigoths, strives to turn Masona, bishop of Mérida, from the Catholic faith.

St. Masona bravely resists the Arian King Leovigild. Whence it happened that this so first, corrected hac. report reached the hearing of Leovigild, the most savage and most cruel king of the Wisegoths, and the most monstrous dragon of his envy, ever jealous of good works, irritated by keener goads, wounded the spirit of the same prince with viperous venom, and poured cod. transfuderet. the poisoned cup into his bowels. And at once, armed with diabolical counsel by the draught of that deadly cup, envy goading him on, he commanded the aforesaid most holy man, by envoys passing between, again and again, that, abandoning the Catholic faith, he should turn to the Arian heresy with the whole of the people entrusted to him. And when the man dedicated to God replied most constantly, and by messengers returning twice and three times sent word to the king that he would never abandon the true faith which he had once come to know, he moreover reproached the Arian king himself as he ought, and repelled his perfidy from himself with worthy rebukes. And so, the messengers having returned to him, the aforesaid king began to entice his spirit with diverse persuasions, [if] omits cod. perhaps on some occasion he could bend him to the will cod. vuluptatem. of his præstitio ed. superstitionis. . But he despised the many ed. ejus. crafty persuasions, spat out gifts and rewards as refuse, and manfully and utterly vindicated the Catholic faith. Nor yet did he prefer to be silent against perfidy, lest by being silent he might perhaps seem to consent [so from the ed.; but the cod.: Nec tamen contra perfidiam tacere malum sensisse videretur, the words ne tacendo forsitan con being passed over.] , but, opposing his madness with all his efforts, he resounded with the blast of truth. And when he saw himself failing in vain labour, snatched away in fury, he began to assail him with many terrors, thinking that he could shake with threats one whom he had been unable to overcome with blandishments. But the holy man is neither broken by terrors nor persuaded by blandishments; but, fighting in strong combat against the most atrocious tyrant, he persisted unconquered for the defence of justice.

CHAPTER XI.

Sunna, Arian pseudo-bishop of Mérida, defeated in public disputation by Masona.

[Sunna, bishop of the Arians, challenges Masona at Mérida to a public disputation,] Having learned thereafter, the most cruel tyrant, that neither by threats nor by gifts could he make the spirit of the man of God apostatize from the right faith to his perfidy, as he was wholly a vessel of wrath and tinder of vices and a shrub of damnation, whose breast a more savage enemy ed. hæresis. besieged and whom the most cunning serpent held captive in his control, he offered bitter things for sweet, harsh foods for mild, deadly drugs for health. A certain pestilent man, namely, vindicating in all things the depravity of the Arian heresy, whose name was Sunna, for seditious quarrels

to be stirred up and for the disturbance of the most holy man and of the whole people, he established as bishop of the Arian party in the same city ^a: a man, in short, patron of a perverse dogma, a deadly person and most foul cod. deterrimum. in countenance, whose brow was clouded, his eyes fierce, his aspect hateful, his movement horrible; and he was sinister in mind, depraved in morals, lying in tongue, obscene in words, swollen without, empty within, puffed up outwardly, vacant inwardly, inflated abroad, emptied within of all virtues, deformed on both sides, unworthy of good things, opulent in the worst, guilty of offences, and exceedingly eager for perpetual death. This aforesaid author of perfidy, when, coming to the city of Emereta, he usurped for himself with rash daring certain basilicas with all their privileges, taken from the power of their own pontiff at the king's command, attacking cod. eggrediens. them, bound by the tighter chains of the deadly robber and wounded ed. satiatusque. by his lethal cups, began to bark out rabid speeches against the servant of God, and with clamorous, threatening words to vomit forth most filthy utterances. But the most approved servant of God neither did the threat cod. contaminatio. of the gallows-bird break, nor did the turbulent anger of the pestilent man soften, nor did the tempest of the raving reprobate turn aside, but, like a most strong wall, he remained immovable against all storms for the defence of the holy faith. And when the aforesaid infidel wished with all his effort to drive out the servant of God and all the faithful by exquisite arts cod. ortibus; ed. martyriis. and could not, relying on the royal favour he strove on every side to attack the basilica of the most holy virgin Eulalia, that he might take it from the power of its own bishop and dedicate it to the Arian heresy. When the holy Bishop Massona and the whole people resisted and vehemently opposed him, the aforesaid pseudo-bishop Sunna wrote many things to the aforesaid prince in accusation of the holy man, and suggested to him that that sacred basilica which he had coveted to enter should be taken from the power of the Catholics ed. a catholicorum. and handed over to his control by royal command. To this he is said to have promulgated such a sentence: that, judges sitting in the atrium of the church, both bishops, summoned by them, should be present, and, placed before them, should contend in the conflict of disputation for the defence of each party, and, fighting one against the other in alternate encounters, should establish or strengthen whatever was said by them from the volumes of the holy scriptures by testimonies brought forward; and whichever party should obtain the triumph of the prize, he likewise should claim for himself the church of St. Eulalia ^b.

[28] and is overcome by him But when a decree of this kind, the rumour spreading, resounded in the ears of the kindly man Masona, he at once in great haste sought the basilica of the holy virgin Eulalia, and for three days and as many nights, persevering in fasts so the cod., perhaps precimoniis should be read. and weeping, he lay prostrate on the pavement before the altar under which the venerable little body of the sacred martyr is placed. On the third day at last he returned to the atrium which is founded within the walls of that city omits cod. ; and he returned with so great an alacrity and constancy of mind that it seemed doubtful to none of the faithful that he was going to the help of him who said: Do not meditate beforehand what you will speak; but what is said to you in that hour, that speak: for it is not you that speak, but the Holy Spirit. And when he had come into the city, and, entering the atrium, had sat down, by the joyfulness of his countenance he took away the sadness of all the faithful, and admonished them not to hesitate in anything cod. alio. about his victory; and he awaited for a very long time the wicked Arian bishop himself and at the same time the judges, attending them. At length the Arian bishop together with the judges entered, surrounded by bands of the people and swollen with the haughtiness of pride. Then thereupon, the bishops being seated, the judges also sat down, and they especially those who were patrons of the Arian party and of the most impious king. And when they were seated, the holy Bishop Masona, being a man of supreme gravity and supreme prudence, for long and much kept silence, his eyes fixed on heaven. And as he kept silence, Sunna, the bishop of the heretics, began first to speak, and began to bring forth with the greatest clamour the wicked ed. nefandi. words of his mouth, strident, harsh, scabrous and obscene. And when the man of God patiently, gently and sweetly replied to him and notably demonstrated the whole truth, and he on the contrary hissed in with more impudent words, as through the mouth of a dragon, the two began to have a vast contest of words between them. But in no way could the mass of flesh resist the wisdom of God and the Holy Spirit who spoke through the mouth of his little servant Bishop Masona. Why say more? Convicted and overcome by every argument he fell silent, and covered with excessive shame he blushed, and not so much he as the perverse mediators who importunately strove to bring support to his party; and not only did they blush in confusion, but even, hearing the speech of inestimable doctrine proceeding from his mouth in honey-flowing discourse, struck in mind and turned to excessive stupor, they praised with much admiration him whom a little before they had wished to overthrow. For the Lord deigned to confer so great a grace on his lips cod. dubiis. on that day that no one ed. quisquam. had ever before seen him so illustrious in eloquent so corrected; cod. first facundum. speech; and although he had always taught with eloquent mouth, yet then beyond other days he proved more eloquent. Then at last the upright saw, and rejoiced, and all iniquity stopped its mouth, for God stopped the mouth of those speaking wicked things. All the faithful therefore wondered greatly, because, although they had known this man before as most eloquent, they yet did not remember him ever to have spoken such scholarly discourses, so polished, and in such light-flowing eloquence. Then at once all the orthodox and all the Catholics, the enemies being laid low and overcome, cried out in praises, saying: Who is like you among the gods, O Lord? Who is like you? and there is none according to your works. Then they went with one accord to the basilica of the glorious virgin Eulalia together with the victorious prelate Masona; indeed they came exulting in the praises of God, and, rejoicing with immense din, entered her most sacred temple, and gave infinite thanks to the almighty Lord, because by the prayers so the ed., cod. templum. of his sacred virgin he had raised his servants on high and had reduced his enemies to nothing.

ANNOTATED.

CHAPTER XII.

Masona is called to Toledo by the king; refusing to give up the tunic of St. Eulalia, he is sent into exile, and tames a fierce horse.

King Leovigild, roused by the calumnies of Sunna, summons Masona to Toledo, Therefore the aforesaid heretic Bishop Sunna, however much he had been convicted by every argument and by truth, persisted stubbornly in his former faith; nor could he hasten with free steps to the harbour of salvation, whose stony heart, like Pharaoh's, the ancient ed antiquus. enemy had by God's permission hardened. After this, seeing himself overcome in all things, he began more and more with savage mind to contrive against the servant of God accusations and added ed. objecta. fabrications cod. commentia; Flor. commenta; Tam. commercia. by crafty arrangements, and, fenced round with every kind of weapon against the soldier of Christ, to advance rather to assail ed. expugnaturus. himself, and secretly to accuse the most blessed man Bishop Masona himself of many crimes in the ears of the Arian prince Leovigild. Nothing, surely, did the craftiness of the adversary prevail; nothing did calamitous wickedness harm the man of God, whom the grace of the Redeemer armed with spiritual arms. At length the wicked spirit compelled the often-mentioned king of the Arians to remove the holy man from his own see, and to have him presented before his gaze; and quickly the ministers, sharers of his crime, fulfilling the edict of the order and coming to the city of Emereta, compelled the blessed man to hasten with all speed to the city of Toledo, in which the king was. Hence when suddenly the most holy man Bishop Masona was taken away, snatched from the bosom of the holy church, and, unharmed, was led as a guilty man to exile, the voice of all the citizens of Emereta resounded cod. prestrepebant. with great wailing and intolerable tears; with immense groans and immense howlings they proclaimed that the remedies of so great a shepherd were being taken from them, crying aloud indeed in these words: Why, pious shepherd, do you desert your sheepfold? Why do you leave your flock to perish? Do not, we beseech you, send us into the jaws of wolves, lest your sheep, refreshed hitherto with nectar-laden flowers, be torn by biting wolves, no pontiff taking care of them? Then he, moved by so many tears, as he always overflowed ed. affluebat. in the Lord with bowels of piety, is reported to have wept; then, addressing them in very many words, he deigned to console them with wonderful fineness. After this, bidding farewell to all, the divine support accompanying him, he set out with tranquil mind, constant spirit, cheerful countenance, as he was always accustomed.

[30] and refusing to hand over the tunic of St. Eulalia And when he had come to the city of Toledo, and had stood in the sight of the most atrocious tyrant, the king, provoking cod. lascessans. him with very many insults and assailing him with many terrors, desired to draw him with all cod. omue. the effort of his depraved intention to the Arian heresy. But though the man of God willingly bore all the insult offered him, he yet began against the things which the rabid dog barked out to reply unhesitatingly with all mildness, and, passing over his own insults, grieving for the injuries to the Catholic faith, to answer the tyrant himself boldly. More and more stirred by his constancy, the most insane king began much more with rabid mouth to gnash against the servant of God with more rabid barkings; then he began to press him with threats and terrors to present to him the tunic of the most holy virgin Eulalia, which he would have in the basilica of the Arian depravity there in Toledo. To this the man of God replied: Be it known to you that I will never stain my heart with the filth of the Arian superstition, I will never defile my mind with so perverse a dogma ed. perverso dogmate. . The tunic of my lady Eulalia I will never hand over to be polluted by the sacrilegious hands of heretics, or even to be touched with their fingertips, nor can it be found and possessed by you at any time. Hearing this, the profane tyrant, turned to the fury of madness, sent hastily and swiftly to the city of Emereta men who should everywhere anxiously seek that holy tunic, and, searching shrewdly both in the treasury of the church of St. Eulalia and also in the treasury of the senior church ^a, which is called Holy Jerusalem, should keep seeking until, having found it, they should bring it to him. When they had come, and had vigorously searched everywhere, they by no means found it, and thus they returned empty-handed to their king. When they reported this to him, the devil began to gnash more sharply with grinding of teeth against the man of God. When he was set before his gaze, he said to him: Either tell where is what I seek; or if you do not tell, know that you are to be afflicted with grave

injuries, and afterwards to set out into exile in a distant region, where, afflicted with many hardships and intolerably tormented by all necessities, you will perish by a cruel death. To this the man of the Lord is said to have given such an answer: Do you threaten me with exile? Be it known to you that I do not dread your threats and am by no means afraid of exile, and therefore I beseech you that, if you know any region where God is not, you order me to be given over to exile there. He said to him: And in what place is God not, biotenate ^b? And the man of God replied: If you know that God is in every place, why do you threaten me with exile? For wherever you send me, I know that the piety of the Lord will not forsake me. But this too I hold certain, that the more cruelly you have raged against me, the more his mercy will follow me and his clemency will console me. On account of his constancy the most insane tyrant, afflicted inwardly with the greater torment of his most wicked mind, moved by gall and excessive bitterness, said to him: Either present to me that tunic, which you have fraudulently stolen, or if you do not present it, I will have your limbs torn asunder with diverse tortures. The soldier of God answered him thus undaunted: I have already told you once and again that I will not dread your threats; but let your perverse mind devise further against me whatever it can. Yet I neither dread you, nor, terrified by fear, will I present what you seek. But know this, that I have burned that tunic with fire, and made ashes of it, and drunk them mixed in water. And feeling his stomach with the touch of his hand, he said: Know evidently that I have drunk it reduced to ashes, and behold it is here inside in my belly; I will never give it back to you. This he said because, no one knowing it, he had girt it upon his stomach, folded beneath his garments and wrapped in linens, and thus he carried it, God alone being aware; for God so blinded the eyes of the king himself and of all those standing by him that no one understood how the man of God was pursuing these things ^c.

[31] he punishes with exile: a most ferocious horse shows itself gentle to Masona. While they were saying these and like things and there was much clearness in the sky, the divine majesty suddenly thundered from heaven with a great crash, so that King Leovigild trembling fell from his throne to the ground in terror. Then the man of God with great exultation constantly said: If a king ed. rex es. , behold the king whom it is right to fear; for not such a one as you are. Then thereupon the wicked spirit immediately opened with noxious words the sacrilegious mouth of the tyrant, ever armed ed. armatum. with insults, and he at once barked out this sentence of his impiety: We order Masona, ever hostile to us by his behaviour, enemy of our faith and contrary to our religion, to be quickly withdrawn from our sight and relegated to exile. And when the most impious king, an enemy of this kind, had given this assuredly evil sentence against an innocent man, the ministers, sharers of his crime, as quickly as possible drew him from his sight, and at the king's order prepared a fierce horse for him to sit on, which should so hurl him headlong that, falling with his neck broken, he should cruelly perish: for the horse was of such ferocity that no rider presumed to mount it, because it had already made many plunge headlong. And when it was being prepared for the man of God to mount, the most cruel king, looking out through a high Tam. eminus. window of the palace, was waiting for the holy man, about to fall from the horse, to furnish him a great spectacle. And at once, the standard of the cross being raised in the name of the Lord, the most holy priest mounted the fierce horse. This the Lord rendered to him as a most gentle lamb; for it began with all gentleness and caution to go the way of its journey, which a little before with immense snorting and raging and with incessant motion cod. metu. of the whole body refused, as if in disdain, to carry anyone else. And when all saw this miracle, they were stunned and wondered greatly; for the king himself also was turned to great wonder. But what could the most splendid radiance of the sun profit a blind man, whose inmost parts the most savage enemy had darkened with his every work?

ANNOTATED.

CHAPTER XIII.

Nepopis, an Arian pseudo-bishop, put in place at Mérida; but Masona, an exile in a monastery for three years, is illustrious for miracles.

[Bishop Nepopis intruded into the see of Mérida; Masona an exile for three years; his liberality towards the poor rewarded by a prodigy.] Therefore the holy prelate of God Masona, with only three of his boys accompanying him, came to the appointed place ^b; with whom the men sent by the king to punish him soon relegated him to exile in a monastery. His relegation was the highest sublimity, his insult so the cod. Cf. above, no. 30 beginning. a shining sanctity, his pilgrimage an immense felicity. After this there is put in his place a pseudo-priest by name a certain Nepopis, and he is substituted in the place of the man of God in the city of Emereta: a profane man indeed, a very servant of the devil, an angel of Satan, a forerunner of Antichrist, and he was bishop of another city. But as much as the man of God grew in abundant virtues, so much on the contrary was the other defiled by wicked acts. When now for three years and more the blessed man Masona had been spending a blessed life, and excelled there in many virtues, all the necessaries which he could have there for his own uses and those of his servants he paid out to the poor. And when almost nothing remained that he might bestow, a certain poor little widow, who was beset by many hardships, came to him demanding alms. But when the man of God, who had already consumed everything in like work, searched greatly what he might impart to her, and because he could by no means find anything, he began to demand of the boys who were with him that if any of them had anything, he should faithfully present it, that he might give it to the said poor woman. Of these one, by name Sagatus, who was over the others, answered, saying: I have indeed one solidus ^c; but if I give this, we shall have nothing at all with which to buy afterwards for ourselves or for our little beast (et best.) cod. evestiunculæ. . The man of the Lord ordered him to give it whole without any hesitation, and to reserve nothing of it for himself, not doubting that the Lord would be present to him, who would at once supply all good things to him. When, obeying his order, he had given the solidus itself to the woman, after a little while the aforesaid Sagatus ran to the same woman, and besought her that, since he had nothing with which to buy food for himself, she should return to him out of what he was lending at least one tremissis ^d, with which he might provide for his need. She at once returned one without sadness, and carried away two with her with joyful mind. Without delay, behold suddenly before the doors of the monastery there were found standing two hundred laden asses, which had been sent with various provisions to the same man by various Catholic men. When this had been announced to the man of God, and had been offered by those who had come, giving immense thanks to the almighty Lord, he immediately ordered Sagatus to be summoned. When he had come, the man of the Lord said to him: How much did you give to the woman asking alms? And he replied: According to your command, the solidus which I had I gave whole; but because necessity pressed, I afterwards received back one tremissis from her. And the man of the Lord said: May the Lord pardon you, brother, because you were doubtful and despaired of the mercy of the Lord, and besides sinned against many poor. You gave two tremisses, behold you have received two thousand solidi and two hundred asses loaded with many foods. For if you had not taken away the third tremissis, beyond doubt you would have received three hundred laden asses. He then, giving thanks, and rendering the grace of his blessing in return for their thanksgiving, refreshed with sacred words and at the same time with letters all those who had sought him: and he immediately paid out to the poor almost all that had been sent to him.

ANNOTATED.

CHAPTER XIV.

King Leovigild, struck by St. Eulalia, restores Masona to the church of Mérida.

St. Eulalia foretells to Masona in a vision the end of his exile; But after some days, when he had entered the basilica of that monastery for the sake of prayer, suddenly over the altar of the same holy basilica the most sacred virgin Eulalia appeared in the form of a dove of snowy whiteness, and addressing him cod. cumque. gently, as a most pious lady, she deigned to console her most faithful little servant. Then she said to him: Behold, now it is time that, returning to your city, you should show me your former service. And saying this she vanished from his eyes with swift flight. But the man of God, although he exulted in the grace of so great a vision and so great a consolation, yet began to weep exceedingly, because, losing the quiet of his poverty and pilgrimage, he was returning to the whirlwinds and storms of the world. For it was not doubtful to him that what he had heard was soon to be fulfilled.

[34] [she commands King Leovigild, afflicted with blows, to recall the saint from exile.] Then thereupon, no delay intervening, the aforesaid glorious virgin avenged with most severe vengeance the injuries of her servant. Finally on a certain night she stood by the impious tyrant Leovigild reclining on his bed, and for long and much she beat both his sides with scourges, saying: Give me back my servant. For if you delay to return him, know that you will be tormented with sharper punishments. So indeed was the wretch scourged that, awakened with great weeping, he showed all who stood by him the so many bruises inflicted, crying out that he had been scourged because he had inflicted injuries on the most holy bishop. For who had inflicted the blows on him, her name, dress, and beauty of countenance he laid open in detail, and with great wailings he most manifestly published all. For at once, fearing that he would be more gravely punished by God's judgment, as he was always in all things a most wicked pretender and a most deceitful dissembler, with much (p. m.) ed. pietate simulata. entreaty so corrected, first pie. he ordered that the man of God, who had in vain been

removed from his city, should again come to rule his church. And when the most holy man Masona less than assented to what the most insane king was demanding, and asserted that he would remain where he had been relegated, he asked again and again with prayers offered that he should deign to return to his city; for the piety of the supreme God at once softened his sincere breast, and in abundant benevolence opened the way to his servant. And when, by God's help, he was now returning, the most cruel king strove by prayers and gifts to make propitious to himself the one whom he had once by fraud relegated by condemnation. But he spat out the gifts, refused the presents, with clement spirit released the crime committed, and according to the Lord's saying did not retain the faults of his debtors, but forgave them.

CHAPTER XV.

The pseudo-bishop Nepopis fleeing, Masona recovers the property of the church.

[The pseudo-bishop Nepopis, fleeing, tries to carry off the property of the church; which being wonderfully recovered, Masona returns to Mérida,] Thereafter with a very great retinue he returned from the place in which he had been relegated cod. adds subrogatus. to the city of Emereta. When Nepopis, who had been put in his place, had heard of his approach, suddenly terrified by a divine terror he strove to flee to his own city, in which he had previously been bishop. Before he went away, however, he fraudulently sent to his city, secretly at night-time by men of the church of Emereta, with very many wagons overloaded, abundant silver and notable ornaments, and whatever cod. quidquid. better things he saw in the church of Emereta. Nepopis himself, of course, unhappily driven from Emerita by the whole clergy and people, proceeded in haste to his city, and lest the man of God Masona should find him in his church and drive him out with all ignominy, he hastened to depart as quickly as possible. And as he himself fled first with a few, after him all who pertained to him, going out from the city ignominiously, scattered, disturbed and straggling in diverse directions, made for his own city. And while this was going on, by the nod of God and by the merits of St. Eulalia it happened on the same day that St. Masona suddenly, with an infinite multitude, was returning to the city of Emerita along the very road along which the wagons laden with his property were hastening. When in that very journey, not far from the city, they met cod. obviasset. him, the holy man ordered it to be asked to whom all these things or wagons belonged. And they, recognizing their own lord, filled with great joy replied: We are your servants, lord. He asked them again what they were carrying in the wagons. And they said: We are carrying the property of St. Eulalia and yours, which the hostile robber Nepopis has plundered, and we ourselves, unhappy men, are going into captivity, separated from our property and sons and wives and driven from the fatherland in which we were born. When the man of the Lord heard this, filled with great joy he said: I give thanks to you, good Lord Jesus, because great is the multitude of your sweetness, who have deigned in all things to bear so great a care for your servants, though unworthy, both to bring us back prosperously, delivered from all evils, and by no means to hand over your property to the control of enemies. And saying this, he ordered all to be recalled to his city, and thus, with immense joy, all rejoicing, he came to the city.

[36] and is received with the highest exultation of all. And as one thirsting in the burning of the heat longs for the streams of fountains, so he, with glowing spirit and frequent breath, by God's assistance, merited to come to the basilica of St. Eulalia. And when there with the whole affection of his mind he had heaped up the affection of his desire, exulting in the Lord, all exulting, he entered the city. So indeed the church of Emereta, exulting, received its governor with supreme gladness. For they rejoiced that the sick had found healing, the oppressed had found solace, that nourishment was not wanting to the needy. Why say more? Abundant supports were restored by the Lord to the church of Emereta; for the want of calamities, and the frequent disasters of pestilence, and the unusual storms of the whole city the presence of the holy man, by the Lord's mercy, suspended, which undoubtedly, the shepherd being removed, had pressed upon them because of his absence.

CHAPTER XVI.

King Leovigild dying in heresy, his Catholic son Reccared succeeded.

Leovigild being dead, Reccared draws the Visigoths back from the Arian heresy. Therefore since Leovigild did not profit but harmed, so as to destroy rather than rule Spain, and no shameful deed or crime remained which he did not claim as his own, deserting God in every respect, indeed himself forsaken by God, he unhappily lost his kingdom together with his life, and, seized by a most grievous disease by the judgment of God, he breathed out a most foul life and acquired for himself perpetual death, and, his soul having been cruelly loosed from his body, detained in perpetual punishments, consigned everlastingly to the Tartarus of Erebus, he is not undeservedly held bound, to burn in the ever-boiling waves of pitch ^a. After whose most cruel death the venerable man Prince Reccared, his son, obtained by right the administration of the kingdom, and was deservedly raised to the summit of the sovereignty due to him; by principal merits, legitimately and solemnly, he merited the royal summit by God's granting, a man in short orthodox and in all things Catholic, who, following not his perfidious father but Christ the Lord, was converted from the depravity of the Arian heresy, and led the whole nation of the Visigoths by wonderful preaching to the true faith ^b. For he was an asserter of divine religion, a preacher of right glory, a defender in every way of the Catholic faith, preaching the holy Trinity co-eternal and of one power and substance and distinguishing it in the property of the persons, affirming one God in nature, calling the Father unbegotten, maintaining the Son begotten from the Father, and believing that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both. Adorned, namely, with these virtues, he began to love all whom he felt to be dear to God, altogether to shudder at and execrate all whom he knew to be hateful to God, and condemned the error of the wicked impiety of the heretics. While this was being done urgently, and much tranquillity was being restored to the Catholic Church by God's favour, and the error of the Arian calamity was being dispelled from the minds of almost all, and, all quarrels being driven out, the city of Emerita together with the holy Bishop Masona was rejoicing together for the grace of so great a tranquillity and ceaselessly giving thanks to the Lord, again the ancient enemy, stirred by his accustomed envy, brought renewed battles upon the servant of God by his ministers.

ANNOTATED.

CHAPTER XVII.

When Masona, through the fraud of the pseudo-bishop Sunna, was attacked with the sword by Count Witteric, he is delivered by a miracle.

Sunna, the Arian bishop, lays snares for St. Masona, For Sunna, the Gothic cod. gotus. bishop, of whom we made mention above, stirred up by the devil, by diabolical counsel persuaded certain Goths cod. gotorum. , noble in birth and exceedingly wealthy in resources, of whom some had even been appointed by the king as counts in certain cities ^a, and separated them from the ranks of the Catholics and from the bosom of the Catholic Church with a countless cod. innumerabile. multitude of people, and devised fraudulent counsels against the servant of God Bishop Masona, how they should kill him. Then thereupon he sent his boys to him, and as if from affection of charity asked him through them to come to his house, that he might there destroy the man of God by a most cruel death. When they had come, and had suggested it to him, soon the blessed man, filled with the spirit of God, understood their collusion, and at once said: I can by no means go there now, because there is something that cod. quid. I must arrange for the benefit of the Catholic Church; but if he desires to see me, let him come here into the atrium of the church, and let him see me as he wishes. And those who had been sent, returning, reported what they had heard. When he had heard this, he at once summoned to his house the aforesaid counts, with whom he was arranging to kill the holy man, and told them to go to the atrium together with him; yet he first so determined with them that when they entered the atrium, one of them, whose name was Witteric, who was also afterwards king of the Goths ^b, having drawn his sword, should so run through the most blessed man with one stroke that there should be no need of a second.

[39] from which he is preserved by divine power. And when he had instructed the aforesaid Witteric in a plan of this kind, they all went together with one mind and the same purpose to the atrium of the holy bishop. When they had come and wished to enter at once, they were prevented, and they were admonished to wait a little before the doors, until St. Masona should send to Claudius, a most illustrious man, duke of the city of Emereta ^c, so that in his presence they might see one another with mutual and alternate looks. And the same Claudius, sprung of noble family, was born of Roman parents; he was altogether Catholic in faith, and strongly bound by the bonds of religion: vigorous in battles, exceedingly ready in the fear of God, instructed in warlike studies, likewise practised in warlike affairs. And when this was announced to him, as his house adjoined the atrium very closely, he soon was present, hurrying swiftly ed. perspicaciter. with a vast multitude. Then, when the illustrious man Claudius had entered the atrium, at once those also who have been mentioned above entered with vast bands of people, and then, the holy man being greeted according to custom, they sat down. When sitting for long and much they were speaking to one another, the same aforesaid Witteric, a very strong young man, standing behind the shoulder of the excellent man Duke Claudius, as being yet younger in age paying deference to his elder, indeed his foster-father ^d, chose with his whole effort to draw from its sheath the sword with which he was girded, that St. Masona and at the same time Claudius, according to what

had been determined, he might slaughter them. But by the nod of God the sword was so bound in the sheath that he thought it had been fastened to it with iron nails. And when for long and much he had wished to draw the blade, and had been altogether unable, the authors of this depraved plan began silently to wonder why Witteric did not fulfil what he had promised, and, gazing at him narrowly with their eyes, urged him more and more that he should unhesitatingly carry out so great an abomination and so monstrous a crime and by no means fear to punish the aforesaid men with the sword. At their so most cruel urging he wished again and again to draw his sword from its sheath with all his strength, but could never do so. And when the aforesaid young man saw this omits cod. , he perceived that by divine gift the sword had been bound, so that the one which he had always had fit for his uses he could then by no means draw, and he, turned to excessive cod. nimiu. stupor, grew pale. But the authors of this wicked crime, when they saw that the contrivances of their most wicked plan had been frustrated by divine judgment, at once rose, and, bidding farewell, returned to their houses with bitterness.

ANNOTATED.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Again Masona is delivered from the snares of Sunna by the help of Claudius, duke of Mérida; the stubborn Sunna dies an exile in Mauretania; Vacrila, a sharer in the crime, becomes a slave of the church.

Another conspiracy of the Arians And when they had gone back, Witteric by no means returned with them, but at once, trembling, fell at the feet of the most holy man Bishop Masona, and betrayed the whole plan, and sincerely narrated how he had wished to strike him and had been unable to draw his sword. After this he said with tears: I confess my sin, because with my whole intention I wished to carry out this evil, but God did not permit me. And he added: For they have arranged another plan also against you, that, since they have not prevailed here in the atrium just now, they may at least prevail on the most sacred day of Easter. And this is the arrangement they have, that when according to custom at Easter you have celebrated Mass here in the senior church, and after Mass, in accordance with custom, have proceeded singing psalms to the basilica of St. Eulalia with all the Catholic people, their men will take up their station at the gate of the city with many wagons laden with swords and bars, under a concealed cunning as if they were bringing grain; and when you have proceeded simply and unarmed, their whole multitude shall suddenly rush upon you, and snatching up swords and clubs shall destroy all alike, men and women, old and little ones, by a cruel death. But I, unhappy man, who have mixed myself in so great a crime, ask indulgence from you, my most pious lord, and I beg that by your prayers the Lord may grant me pardon. All that I know, however, I suggest faithfully and most purely manifest. And behold, I am in your hands; do to me what seems good and right in your eyes. And lest perhaps your sanctity should think me deceitful or a mocker, do not permit me to leave the atrium, but hand me into such custody as you order, until you vigorously search out and most certainly learn everything; and if you find it otherwise, I lying, I do not wish to live.

[41] overcome by the work of Duke Claudius; When the man of the Lord Bishop Masona, who always shone forth with the virtue of piety, had heard this, he gently admonished him to fear nothing at all, gave thanks to almighty God, who had delivered his servants from so great dangers, and then sent to Duke Claudius, and made everything known to him. When he had heard it, he ordered that the affair be covered a little with silence, lest perhaps, learning that their plan had been betrayed, they should seize on flight. But while they shrewdly investigated, he manifestly found that what had been announced was true. And when the aforesaid Arian counts had furnished according to custom for the meeting ^a the things that they had set out, the multitude being arranged in ambush on every side, Duke Claudius suddenly rushed upon them; and some of them were captured, while others, who wished to act with swords, at once perished by swords. Then thereupon Duke Claudius went with a vast multitude to the house of Sunna ^b, the Arian bishop, and likewise seized the heretic bishop himself, who suspected none of this, and assigned him to St. Masona, the bishop, to be kept strictly guarded. And in like manner he consigned all his colleagues to custody; but Witteric, who had made known the plans of the wicked men, he ordered to go away free. All that had been done, therefore, Duke Claudius made known to the orthodox Prince Reccared, and suggested that he should at once give him the proffered sentence of his decree, as to what should be done concerning the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[42] Sunna is sent into exile. And the king, receiving a suggestion of this kind, gave such a sentence: That all, deprived of all patrimonies and honours, should be bound in exile, tied fast with many iron chains; but that they should exhort the pseudo-bishop Sunna to be converted to the Catholic faith: and if he were converted, then at last they should instruct cod. præciperet. him that he ought to do penance, and weep for his offences with the satisfaction of tears, so that, penance having been done, when they should know him to be now a perfect Catholic, they might afterwards ordain him bishop in some other city. And when they frequently told him that he should do penance for such great crimes, and by weeping mitigate the fury of the Lord which he had stirred up by offending; this he would not do, but, not abandoning his former tyranny, answered thus: I do not know what penance is. For this reason be it known to you that I do not know what penance is, and I will never be a Catholic; but I will either live by the rite in which I have lived, or will most willingly die for the religion in which I have remained until now from my earliest age. When they saw his mind obstinate and stubborn in evil, they unhappily drove cod. repelerunt. him at once from the borders of Spain with supreme disgrace, lest he should stain others with his pestilent disease, and put him ignominiously in a small boat, and threatening him they instructed him that he should have free choice as to whatever place, nation or region he wished to cross to; but at whatever time he should be found in Spain, he should know that he was to be punished with a heavier sentence. Then thereupon, sailing, he reached the shore of the region of Mauretania, and, remaining for some time in that same province, he stained many with the perfidy of his impious dogma; then at once punished by divine judgment, he ended his life by a cruel departure ^c. The basilicas of which St. Masona had long unjustly been deprived he merited justly to receive with all their privileges, and he obtained the whole patrimony of the aforesaid heretic, the most clement Prince Reccared granting it.

[43] The wonderful mercy of St. Masona towards one of the conspirators. The other wicked men, whom we have mentioned above, they relegated to exile in accordance with the king's precept. Of these one, who was called Vagrila, escaping from their hands, fled for refuge to the basilica of St. Eulalia in order to receive a remedy. When the often-mentioned Claudius had made this known to Prince Reccared, he is said to have spoken thus: I wonder with what face the enemy of the supreme God has presumed to enter her holy halls, that he should now take refuge, for the sake of receiving a remedy, with her whom until now he has vainly persecuted in his madness. But since we know that God is of great mercy and despises no one, though an offender, who turns to him, and we are in doubt, for this reason we so decree, that Vagrila himself with his wife, sons and all his patrimony shall serve in perpetuity as slave of the most holy virgin Eulalia. For we sanction this also by the present decree, that as the lowest boys are accustomed to walk before the horse of their masters without any aid of a vehicle, so he shall be bound to walk before the horse of the lord who presides over the cell of St. Eulalia, and every service which the lowest slave is accustomed to carry out, he shall perform in his presence with all humility, his buskin or haughtiness being laid aside. Having received this authority, therefore, St. Masona at once ordered him to go forth from the basilica and come into his presence and, as he always overflowed with bowels of piety, gently admonished him to fear nothing thenceforward. But that, obeying the prince's order, for the sake of obedience from the church of St. Eulalia as far as the atrium, which is founded within the walls of the city, before the horse of Redemptus the deacon [he ordered him to go, and, the staff of the aforesaid deacon having been taken up] what is enclosed in brackets is lacking in the codex. and carrying it in his hands, when he had come to the atrium, at once the holy man, releasing him with his wife and sons and all his estates, permitted him to go away free. This alone he commanded him, that in every way he should preserve the Catholic faith whole and immaculate all the days of his life.

ANNOTATED.

CHAPTER XIX.

The Narbonese tumult of the Arians, stirred up by Bishop Athalocus, was suppressed by the work of King Reccared.

[The rebellion of Narbonne, in which Athalocus, the Arian bishop, is a participant,] At that season, therefore, in the outstanding city of the Gauls, Narbonne, the devil stirred up a sedition of this kind against the Catholic faith, the course of whose cause it is exceedingly long to narrate; for if we should wish to pursue this in order, it will seem that a tragedy rather than a history is being woven. But let us narrate briefly and in summary a small part. Two counts, then, illustrious indeed in resources and noble in birth, but profane in mind and ignoble in morals, namely Granista and Wildigern, together with the bishop of the Arians named Atalocus, and many others sharers of their errors, made a graver disturbance in the same region. For rising up against the Catholic faith, they brought an infinite multitude of Franks into the Gauls, so that both the depravity

of the Arian party they might vindicate and, if it could be done, might snatch the kingdom from the Catholic man Reccared. Meanwhile during the same time, killing a countless multitude of clerics, religious and all Catholics, they made an immense slaughter; whose souls, namely, purer than all refined gold and more precious than every precious stone, our Saviour the Lord Jesus, receiving them as burnt offerings, placed with the bands of martyrs in the heavenly sanctuary.

[45] suppressed by King Reccared. After this, therefore, no delay intervening, the sublime and almighty God, fighting against his enemies with supernal arm, avenging innocent blood at the prayers of the most excellent Prince Reccared, at once by the judgment of the sword made a wonderful vengeance on the enemies ^a. Then, all the enemies of the Catholic faith being laid low and struck down, the holy Bishop Masona with all his people, beginning a song of psalmody, sang mystical praises to the Lord, and to the hall of the kindly virgin Eulalia they came with all the people, clapping their hands and singing hymns. And then, all the citizens with him most joyfully celebrating the Easter solemnity, in the manner of the ancients with great din of the streets ed. per plateas. , rejoicing, they cried out in praise of the Lord, saying: Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously honoured; and again: Your right hand, O Lord, has been magnified in strength; your right hand has shattered the enemies, and in the multitude of your majesty you have crushed your adversaries. After this, the storms being removed from every side, the Lord deigned to bestow abundant peace on the Catholic people.

ANNOTATION.

CHAPTER XX.

Masona, very old, having given alms, dies, Eleutherius the archdeacon having died before him in accordance with the holy man's prediction.

St. Masona, old, commits the care of his church to Eleutherius the archdeacon: And so St. Masona, while for many courses of years he ruled the church of Emereta with the divine support assisting, now wearied by excessive old age, was seized with the force of fevers, and began suddenly to be abandoned by the strength of his whole body. Then thereupon, calling together his archdeacon, named Eleutherius, he said to him: Know, son, that the time of my dissolution is at hand: and therefore I beseech and admonish you now so anxiously to take the care of the holy church and of the whole holy congregation that you may make me secure in all things, and that it may be permitted me in a secret place of mourning of spirit to weep for my offences before I go away. Having heard this, the aforesaid archdeacon had no compassion on his infirmity or old age, did not grieve to be left desolate of the solace of so great a father, but rather rejoiced with great joy at his death; at once he puffed up his heart with the gladness of transitory power, so indeed that with a great retinue of boys he proudly hurried here and there, carried on horseback.

[47] who, made excessively proud thereby, But after some days it happened that the holy Bishop Masona wrote out a charter of freedom for the little boys who had shown him faithful service, and for confirming their freedom gave some small part of a little money, or at least conferred small little possessions. But when this was announced to the aforesaid archdeacon, he at once sought the atrium, and asked how the holy bishop was. When it was told him that, the sickness gaining strength, he was now approaching death, he at once summoned the aforesaid little boys, and inquired whatever had truly been conferred on them by the holy bishop. When they had truly told him, roused to fury he began turbulently to hold out threats ed. minans. and terrors to them and to say cod. (for ac dicere) addicere. : See that you keep well what you have received; for if, when I seek it, you do not present all to me untouched, know that you will cod. cum furore. be tormented with most grievous punishments. And having said this, he returned with fury to his house. Then thereupon the aforesaid boys, entering the little cell in which the holy man Bishop Masona lay sick on his little bed, began to weep most bitterly before him, saying: You have shown mercy to us, unworthy as we are, of your piety, which it would surely have suited us better if you had not done. Behold, you are still living, and they hold out such threats to us; when you are dead, who can deliver us from their hands? These and many like things they said tearfully before him. But he, having heard this, did not readily believe; but first, as became his gravity, he shrewdly inquired whether what he had heard was true or false.

[48] at the prayer of the holy bishop he is carried off by a premature death. And when he had learned that what he had heard was true, he wept, and at once ordered himself to be lifted into a little chair and carried to the basilica of the most holy virgin Eulalia, whom he had always served with devout mind. And when the most holy old man had arrived there, spreading out his hands before the sacred altar, and at the same time raising his venerable eyes with tears to heaven, with a great groan he prostrated himself on the ground, and poured out his prayers for long and much in the sight of the Lord. And his prayer being completed, with a clear voice, all hearing, he said: I give thanks to you, Lord, for you have heard me. Blessed are you for ever and ever, because you have not removed my prayer and your mercy from me. And having said this he returned to the bishop's residence, so indeed restored to his former strength that you would think him not sick, not old, but to have taken on a renewed vigour and to be a most robust young man. When according to custom he wished to proceed to the evening office, all rejoicing in a wonderful way, the archdeacon, hearing this, weighed down by his guilt, was stunned that he heard that he was going to proceed to vespers whom he had thought would die the same day. Covered, therefore, with confusion and shame of face, according to custom, with all the clergy, willy-nilly he stood before the bishop, and offered him incense according to custom. The man of the Lord said to him: You will go before cod. here and below præcedis. me, so may your soul live for me. Hearing this, he did not understand it more fully, but asked the other deacons what it was that the holy bishop had said: You will go before me. And they, not knowing the cause, replied: It was said to you for no other reason except that you will go before him to the church. And when he had begun to fulfil the evening office, at once the aforesaid archdeacon, struck with most grievous pain there in the choir of the psalm-singers, went back to his house with grave sickness. When his mother, a most holy woman, namely, learned of this, she at once hurried at most rapid speed to the venerable man, and began to beg him with tears and great weeping to pray to the Lord for her son. To this he replied only this: What I have prayed, I have prayed. On the third day from then the archdeacon died. But the holy Bishop Masona, during the very many days in which he survived cod. supprestis. , imparted much alms to the needy, and, conferring on his faithful servants greater benefits of his grace, deigned to bestow more generous stipends of gifts. Then old and exceedingly decrepit in age and of many days, he breathed out his last spirit in peace among the words of prayer.

CHAPTER XXI.

After Masona, Innocent the deacon becomes bishop of Mérida, and after him Renovatus, both illustrious for miracles.

Innocent succeeds St. Masona, After him, then, there was elected a holy man of the highest sanctity and simplicity, by name Innocent, whose merit the word of his name will indicate. Innocent indeed and simple, judging no one, condemning no one, harming no one, he proved harmless always and pious in all the times of his life. He at the same time at which he was ordained, as it is said, was held to be the last in the order of deacons. Finally he is reported to have been of such sanctity and compunction that whenever rain was lacking and a long drought was burning the earth with excessive heat, the citizens of that city, collected into one, went with him through the basilicas of the saints, entreating the Lord with prayers. And suddenly, as often as they went before him, a rain was granted from heaven in generous flow, which could most fully satisfy the earth. Whence it was not doubtful that his tears, shed from so humble and simple a mind, could obtain from almighty God not only these things but things more powerful than these ^a.

[50] and Renovatus succeeds him. He also being dead, St. Renovatus, adorned with all virtues, not undeservedly merited the summit of the priesthood: a man, in short, a Goth by nation, begotten of generous lineage, conspicuous for the splendour of his family. For he was tall in body, striking in form, comely in stature, grateful in gaze, of a charming countenance, a comely face, and exceedingly admirable in aspect. But although outwardly he was adorned with the glory of his bearing, inwardly he was held to be more beautiful, illuminated by the light of the Holy Spirit. Indeed he was instructed in many disciplines of the arts, and adorned with many various kinds of virtues. For he was outstanding in all his works, most equitable, most just, and of exceedingly keen wit and vehemently instructed in all ecclesiastical disciplines and exceedingly practised in the divine volumes. While he shone with many virtues, instructing not a few disciples in sacred doctrine, and forming them by the most holy example of his life, namely in prudence, sanctity, patience, gentleness, mercy, he made very many such as he himself was, the threshold so the cod., ed. lima. of justice, by the preaching of holy dogma: by whose doctrine the church until now glows and shines like the sun and moon. Then when for very many years he had blamelessly ruled the church, about to be joined cod. compulaturus, ed. copulandus. to the angelic assemblies and to be united ed. conjungendus. to all the heavenly legions of the supernal regions, his limbs being wonderfully loosened, going forth from the body, he merited to enter the hall of the supernal kingdom, to remain always with Christ and to reign without end.

[51] The holy bishops, of whom we have spoken, rest in the church of St. Eulalia. The bodies, therefore, of these aforesaid saints rest, honourably entombed, in one and the same little cell not far from the altar of the most holy virgin Eulalia. At whose venerable sepulchres, finally, Christ daily confers so great a grace of abundant piety that with whatever sickness anyone has been racked, with whatever languor he has been afflicted, as soon as he has there demanded cod. deposcerit. the divine power with his whole heart, feeling all diseases dispelled from him and all stains driven off by divine power, sound and cheerful he comes through the grace of God to the health he desired [b].

[52] This little book was written for the edification of the faithful. The quantity, then, of the miracles and at the same time the deaths of the soldiers of Christ my unpolished speech has narrated as it could; which, however much by its excessive squalor it may unskilfully displease the skilled ed. peritis imperitus. , yet, the pomp of words being omitted, it ennobles those who feel humbly and believe, and heaps up a certain gain of good reward for readers and hearers. For I, the humblest of all, beg of fastidious readers that they read first the little works of this codex, and afterwards despise them, lest they should seem to presume not from judgment but from hatred, and to condemn what they do not know. Yet let them know this most manifestly, that I, impelled by the love of Christ and the affection of most holy Eulalia,

cod. impulsus. to write, have reported manifest things, and have beyond doubt truthfully set forth true things. To the One in Trinity, the Lord ever and reigning perpetually, be glory, honour, might, thanksgiving, power, dominion, praise and blessing now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen. ^c

HERE END THE LIVES OF THE HOLY FATHERS OF EMERETA

ANNOTATED.